The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s1.6

c7.s1.6

A fact of special importance bearing on the state-systems, in India as in Europe, cannot be over-looked in the present context. We have to remember that *Kleinstaaterei* or the system of territorially and demographically petty states is an eternal fact of history both in the East and the West.⁴ While thinking of treatises like *Śukranīti* it would not be proper to orient oneself exclusively to the milieu of vast Empires and Kingdoms. The rôle of lesser states in the making of political institutions, political theories, and political treatises is not to be belittled.