A History of Hindu Political Theories

Excerpt from A History of Hindu Political Theories: From the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A. D The present work is an attempt to trace the political thought of the Hindu people through the long and varied history of its origin, development, and decline. The historical presentation of the Hindu theories of the State and Government is at this moment one of the great desiderata in the field of Indology. It is a welcome sign of the times that since the preparation of this volume was first undertaken, there has been a plentiful crop of books and papers bearing more or less directly upon selected areas of its subject-matter. So long however as there is a tendency, as at present, to depend mainly, if not exclusively, upon the analytical method, there is the risk of interpreting the concepts and categories of the Hindu thinkers in disregard of the limiting conditions of time and place. In the present work while analysis and comparison have, it is believed, received their due measure of attention, the object has been principally to unfold the record of the Hindu political mind in the order of its historical evolution as far as practicable. It has thus been possible to present the ideas concerned in their true historical perspective, and further and above all, to explain the process of their growth and development. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.