The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c12.s1.t3.38

c12.s1.t3.38

The cultural achievements of republican India might easily be belittled. But let students of the history of civilization compare the contributions of the age of Hindu republics with the values of European culture from Pythagoras to Plato, and from the expulsion of the Tarquins to Augustus Caesar, such as Dopsch, for instance, describes in *Wirtschaft-* *liche und Soziale Grundlagen der europäischen Kultur*. In an inventory of India's contributions¹ to the spirit of inquiry and the progress of mankind the epoch of republics (c B. C. 600—A. C. 350), interspersed no doubt with monarchies, must be recognized as responsible for the anatomy, therapeutics and medicine of Charaka's academy, the linguistics and methodology of Pâṇiṇi and his scholars, the metallurgy and alchemy that found patron-saints in Patanjali and Nâgârjuna, the philosophical speculations of the atomists (*Vaiśeṣika*), monists (*Vedânta*), sensationalists (*Chârvâka*), and sceptics (*Lokâyata*), the schools of political science that came to be finally absorbed in the systems of Kautilya and Śukra, the legal and sociological theories associated in the long run with the *nom-de-plumes* of Manu and Yâjna-valkya, the elaboration of the *Jâtaka* folklore and of the *Râmâyaṇa* and *Mahâbhârata* epics, dramaturgy and fine arts of the Bharata² and Bâtsâyana³ cycles, the mystical militarism and *niṣkâma karma* or "categorical imperative" of the *Gîtâ*, and last, but not least, the *sarva-sattva-maitrî*⁴ (humanitarianism and universal brotherhood) of Sâkya, the preacher of *appamâda* (strenuousness) and apostle of *viriya* (energism).