The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c6.s2: The Four Branches of Human Science in Hindu Thought
The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c6.s2
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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.