The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c14.s2.2

c14.s2.2

The second class of Hindu sociological literature, viz., the *artha* and *nîti śâstras*, has been arresting the attention of scholars only for the last decade or so. As Kautilya tells us, many were the writers on politics⁶ in ancient India, though the works of very few are extant. There is a book that passes for the work of one Ghata-karpara. A second *nîti-śâstra* is by tradition fathered on Vidura, a statesman of the *Mahâbhârata*. The sage Vaiśampâyana is credited with a third, viz. the *Nîti-prakâśikâ*.⁷ Somodeva's *Nîti-Vâkyâmrita* is another such book. And there is a treatise, entitled the *Yukti-kalpa-taru*,⁸ attributed to king Bhoja of Dhârâ in Malwa (in the Middle West of India). This Bhoja may have been identical with Mihira Bhoja (c 840—90), the Napoleon of the Gurjara-Pratîhâra Empire. Finally, a *sûtra* or aphoristic treatise dealing with *nîti* topics is credited to Brihaspati, the same perhaps of the *Smriti* fame.