Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c6: Chapter II. Hindu Culture and Sociology in Sukraniti

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c6

Language
English

Contents

Chapter II. Hindu Culture and Sociology in Sukraniti

c6.2

The Greek philosopher Plato was for some time tutor to a king of Syracuse in Sicily. Machiavelli, the Florentine deplomat, who has bequeathed his name to a school of politicians, was the author of a work that proved to be the Bible of kings and princes in mediaeval Italy and Europe. The *Schoolmaster* of Roger Ascham was written for the princesses of an English royal family.¹ The sage Śukrāchāryya, or at any rate, his *nom de plume*, belongs to the same gallery of world's *Rājagurus* or royal tutors. And his *Nītiśāstra* or 'Treatise on Morals' is dogmatically asserted to be the sole authoritative text book on political science that should be used by Hindu kings and statesmen (IV, vii, lines 851-856). This opinion of Śukrāchāryya about the position of *Nītiśāstra* has been referred to by Kāmandaka also (II. 5) as follows: ''According to the school of Uśanas (Śukra) there is only one division of learning, namely, *Daṇḍanīti* and the origin of all kinds of learning lies in this one.'' It would, therefore, be interesting to find out for which Hindu Court or Courts this manual was intended, or which may be said to have supplied data for the rules and generalisations embodied in it.

c6.3

¹ B. K. Sarkar: *The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus* (Leipzig 1922) pp. 163-166.

Nitiśāstra as Social Science

c6.s1.1

The scope of a *Nitiśāstra* is more or less like that of a *Dharma-sūtra* or *Dharma-śāstra*, one of three divisions of *Kalpa-sūtra*, which is one of the six *Vedāngas* or auxiliaries to the Vedas. The province and relative position of *Dharma-sūtra* in Sanskrit literature are thus described by Oldenberg:² "The frame within which the exposition of the *Dharma-sūtras* is enclosed is an essentially broader one than in the case of the *Grihya-sūtras*. * * * The same phenomenon may also be observed in Buddhist *Vināya* literature, where the exposition of the life of the community was at first given only in connection with the explanation of the list of sins (*Pātimokkha*). * * * It was not till later that a more comprehensive exposition, touching all the sides of the life of the community, was attempted. * * * The *Grihya-sūtras* begin to treat of the events of the daily life of the household, * * * confine themselves principally to the ritual or sacrificial side of household life, as is natural owing to their connexion with the older ritualistic literature (*Śrauta-sūtra*). Then the *Dharma-sūtras* take an important step further; their purpose is to describe the whole of the rites and customs which prevail in private, civil and public life. They naturally among other things touch upon the ceremonies treated in the *Grihyasūtras*, but they generally merely mention them and discuss the question of law and custom which are connected with them, without undertaking to go into the technical ordinances as to the ways in which these ceremonies are to be performed."

c6.s1.2

² *Introduction to the Grihyasūtras of Gobhila, Hiranyakeśin* etc. in the *Sacred Books of the East Series*, XXXIII-IV; B. K. Sarkar: *Die Struktur des Volkes in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Lehre der Schukranti* in the *Kölner Vierteljahrshefte für Soziologie* (Cologne, 1932, Jahrgang XI, Heft I).

The Four Branches of Human Science in Hindu Thought

c6.s2.1

Man as an individual and in relation to Nature, other men, society, economy, law, state etc. was thus the subject matter of a vast literature of *śāstras* or *vidyās*, each of which specialized itself in one or other of these social fields. To use old Hindu categories, these specialized sociological studies may be classified in the following manner:

c6.s2.2

1. Worldly and secular interests of man as an individual and as a member of the society giving rise to certain social *vidyās*:

c6.s2.3

1. *Kama-śāstra*,³ dealing with the purely physical and physiological as well as sexological aspects or factors of the human personality.

c6.s2.4

³ The words *Kāmaśāstra*, *Dharmaśāstra*, *Arthaśastra* and *Mokṣaśāstra* have been used here without reference to the titles of books such as are to be found in Sanskrit literature but simply as philosophical categories.

c6.s2.5

2. Comprehensive social, political, economic, religious and ethical aspects or factors of the human personality dealt with in certain groups of *vidyās*:

c6.s2.6

(a) *Dharma-śāstra*, the discipline which deals with duties and *mores*.

c6.s2.7

(b) *Artha-śāstra*, the discipline which deals with finance, constitution, civics, army etc.

c6.s2.8

*Dharma-śāstra* is more encyclopaedic and all-embracing than *Artha-śāstra* while the latter is more constitutional and economic in its make-up. One can also say within certain limitations that "private law" is in the main the topic of the former whereas the latter deals in the main with the "public law".

c6.s2.9

II. Other-worldly, non-secular and transcendental interests of man and society,—giving rise to certain metaphysical and ethical *vidyās*. The disciplines consecrated to these unmaterial or transcendental aspects and factors of the human personality,—the problems of salvation,—are known as *Mokṣa-śāstra*.

c6.s2.10

*Nītiśāstra* is in its scope identical with *Arthaśāstra* and as such covers many of the topics dealt with in *Dharmaśāstra*. In the milieu of *Śukranīti* we have to move about with the categories chiefly of *Dharma* and *Artha*, i.e. the duties and desirables of man as an individual and in society.

c6.s2.11

It is clear, therefore, that in every history of Hindu philosophy, rightly investigated, there should be chapters devoted to *Arthaśāstra*, *Nītiśāstra* or the like. To deal with Hindu philosophical categories without touching upon *Artha*, i.e., the conception of property, law, state, citizenship etc. would be as incomplete, partial and therefore misleading as to write on the history of Greek philosophy without touching upon the *Republic* of Plato or the *Politics* of Aristotle.⁴

c6.s2.12

⁴ The chapter on "Speculations in the Medical Schools" in S. N. Das Gupta's *History of Indian Philosophy* Vol. II, (Cambridge 1932) pp. 272-436 is to be appreciated as being in the right place. A similar chapter on the socio-economic relations, legal ideas and ethico-political interests of man is also a desideratum in a comprehensive treatise dealing with Hindu philosophical systems.

Universality and Relativity of Śukranīti

c6.s3.1

Be this as it may, it is possible to doubt at the outset if the class of writings called *Dharmaśāstras*, *Arthaśāstras*, and *Nītiśāstras* to which *Śukranīti* belongs (1) were the work of a single individual or school, and (2) were ever the Gazetteers designed to embody the actual state of things, or Statute-Books meant for the guidance of the people and rulers, of any particular epoch or region. It may be presumed that like Plato's *Republic* and *Laws*, More's *Utopia*, and Harrington's *Oceana*, *Śukranīti* is the product of the same inspiration that has lain at the bottom of all efforts to portray the ideal constitution of "nowhere", describing things 'that never were on sea or land' in the history of the world's speculative literature. Thus about *Manu Saṁhitā*, Elphinstone remarks in his *History of India* (1889, p. 12): "We must remember that a code is never the work of a single age, some of the earliest and rudest laws being preserved and incorporated with the improvements of the most enlightened times. \* \* Even if the whole code referred to one period it would not show the real state of manners. Its injunctions are drawn from the model to which it is wished to raise the community, and prohibitions from the worst state of crime which it was possible to apprehend. \* \* \* Though early adopted as an unquestionable authority for the law, I should scarcely venture to regard it as a code drawn up for the regulation of a particular state under the sanction of a government. It seems rather to be the work of a learned man, designed to set forth his ideas of a perfect commonwealth under Hindu institutions."

c6.s3.2

According to this view it may be inappropriate to trace the production of *Śukranīti* to the patronage or influence of any of the numerous polities and royal courts in Hindu India. But even the most idealistic literature is not absolutely independent of age and clime. The time-spirit and place-spirit are too powerful to be totally ignored by human genius even if it should consciously attempt this. We may ignore in this connection the monistic "regionalism" or geographical "interpretation" of history as developed by Demolins, who carried to extreme lengths the somewhat radical ideas of Le Play. But there is no difficulty in accepting the more reasonable views of Brunhes as developed in *La Géographie Humaine* or of Worms in *La Sociologie*⁵ in regard to the influence of place on man's activities. Thurnwald's *Die Gestaltung der Wirtschaftsentwicklung aus ihren Anfängen heraus* also can be depended upon as a sober treatment of the place-factor in economic and other human achievements. The social environment and physical surroundings,—both the aspects of the great envelope of man,—cannot but leave their marks upon his intellectual consciousness and literary activities of any considerable magnitude.

c6.s3.3

⁵ R. Worms: *La Sociologie* (Paris 1926), pp. 66-67. A generally acceptable position in regard to the influence of region is that of C. Vallaux: *Le Sol et l'état* (Paris 1911).

c6.s3.4

Leaving aside for the present, therefore, the most vexed of all questions in Indian history, the determination of the personality, identity and individuality of our author, we propose to investigate the physical and social influences that are likely to have contributed to the *Gestalt* or form of *Śukranīti*, as available from a study of the data furnished by it. This investigation is really a study of the education received by our author himself, and of the literature drawn upon by him in the preparation of his work, in one word, a presentation of the whole culture embodied in, and pre-supposed by, *Śukranīti*. A study of this culture and the "relativity" of *Śukranīti* to this *milieu* of physical and social forces and influences, would, however, incidentally furnish some of the evidences pointing to the age and *locale* of the work.

c6.s3.5

The relativity of *Śukranīti* to the social influences may be easily presumed like that of *Manu Saṁhitā* as has been done by Elphinstone. "It is evident that it incorporates the existing laws", says he, "and any alterations it may have introduced with a view to bring them up to its preconceived standard of perfection, must still have been drawn from the opinions which prevailed when it was written." So also the influence of physical and geographical factors on the work, and consequently its "relativity" to a particular region of the earth's surface cannot be missed.

Linked texts (3)