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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c6.s1: Nitiśāstra as Social Science

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c6.s1

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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).