बार्हस्पत्य सूत्र / अर्थशास्त्र (महर्षि बृहस्पति - प्राचीन दण्डनीति, राजधर्म एवं कूटनीति सटीक)

( 12 ) A BRIHASPATI SUTRA. The text here edited with a translation was brought to notice in the course of a search for a celebrated treatise, also ascribed to a Brihaspati, namely the exponent of the Lokâyata or Cârvâka doctrine, the crude corporealism of India. The discovery of this work, to judge from the quotations in the Sarva- darshana-samgraha and elsewhere, would contribute notably to the entertainment of students of Sanskrit literature. The present treatise is not devoid of interest, but the interest is of a different character. The work is in one respect unique, being an exposition of the Science of Royal Policy in Sûtra style. This Indian science may claim no ordinary place in the history of culture, since two of its suceedanea, the policy in fable and the game of chess, still styled the Royal Game, have made the conquest of the world. In its pure form as a science of monarchical government it does not seem to have passed beyond the Indian sphere, that is the sphere dominated by Indian culture, including Further India, the Malay countries, Central Asia, and Tibet : for, though the Muhammadans have a science of govern- ment, which may go back to pre-Islamic Persia, it does not seem to betray an Indian inspiration. And Macchi- avelli's Prince, if influenced at all, as is à priori quite conceivable, by oriental models, would derive rather from the Muhammadan than the Indian. The propagation of the policy in fable (the Fables of Pilpay) was first adumbrated by Sir William Jones, in a sentence*

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* From the Third Annual Discourse : prefixed to his translaton of the Hitopadesha.