The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c14.s3.2

c14.s3.2

Neither merely pedagogic-ethical nor purely descriptive-anthropological are these political *vidyâs* of Sanskrit literature. As manuals of *râja-dharma* or duties for princes the *nîti-śâstras* have their natural analogues in Elyot's *Boke named the Governour* (1531), and in the works of John of Salisbury (twelfth century), Aquinas (thirteenth century), Occleve (fourteenth century), Patrizi (fifteenth century), and the like.³ For certain purposes, again, they may be slightly compared to treatises of the type of Fortescue's *Governance of England* (1476). Moreover, like the Arab encyclopaedist Al Farabi's (c 950) *Model City*, based as it was on Plato, and like the *Prince* and the *Utopia* the writings of Kautilya, Kâmandaka, Śukra and Bhoja are contributions to political "ideals" as well.