The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c16.s1.t3.59

c16.s1.t3.59

Altogether, then, the doctrine of *dharma* in its entirety imparts to the state the character of an institution for the advancement of "culture". The state elevates man out of the law of beasts by instituting legislation, adjudication, and enforcement of duties. The functions of the state are thus in keeping with the ideas involved in the doctrine of *danda*. The state as a pedagogic or purgatorial or moral-training institution is not merely a *mamatva*-insuring instrument i. e. a property-securing agency, but a *dharma*-promoting *samûha* (public association) i. e. a *Kultur-Staat* or the "virtue"-state of Plato. And herein the Hindu theory meets Aristotle's conception of the state as the means to the furtherance of the "highest good" of man.