Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity

OF THE INNER TEMPLE BARRISTER-AT-LAW REGIUS PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1921FOREWORD AMONG the gratifying consequences of the awakening of political aspirations in India must be reckoned the develoment of a keen interest in the history of Indian theories of polity. [...] Nor would it be safe to calculate this period on the analogy of the development of the contemporary literature if available of the Greeks as is sometimes done and allot particular intervals to particular stages of evolution of the literature ; for the Greek mind and the surroundings in which it worked could not be the same as the Hindu mind and its environment and the amount of progress tha [...] Thus the members of the first caste were often masters and teachers of the practical arts though of course it must be borne in mind that the knowledge and practice of Da7fa'aniti were the special obligation of the Kiatriyas just as the knowledge and practice of Varttii (economics) the special charge of the Vaityas. [...] As the religious aspects of ancient Hindu polity have formed the subject-matter of a chapter in the present work the inclusion in the list of such manuscripts as well as of a few dealing with some of the politico-religious ceremonies may be of interest to readers of the present work. [...] The regalia of kings are but the talismans of their predecessors the magicians.— Belief in the supernatural powers of kings shared by the ancestors of all the Aryan races.