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

( 17 ) The Nîti literature of Burma is of a different character. In the Tibetan, however, where we find also quasi-independent works on government, there are translations of Sanskrit texts in verse ascribed (1) to Masuraksha and (2) to Nâgârjuna. The Javanese has, besides a professed translation of the Kâmandakî Nîtisâra, also some minor tracts, perhaps representing the late moral anthology which bears the name of Cânakya. If the short text which is here edited were represen- tative of the ancient Bârhaspatya doctrine, it would have a considerable interest. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case. It professes, indeed, like the Brihaspati Smriti, to be dictated to Indra by his Purohita. But what follows is a brief and strangely disjointed exposit- ion of the subject. Its date, as it stands, seems from an apparent mention of the Yâdvas of Devagiri to be brought down at least to the twelfth century A.D. It refers, in passages which, however, may be suspected of interpolation (see notes to II. 8–35, III. 8–16, 33–7, 119–33), to the sects of the Shaivas, Vaishnavas, and Shâktas and names their sacred domains (kshetras), some of which may not be ancient. It does not seem to contain the matter indicated by the citations in the Arthashâstra of Kautilya (pp. 6, 29, 63, 177, 192 of the edition). It displays some grammatical peculiarities, e.g. neuters for masculines (which may sometimes be explained as accusatives obscured by the elliptical sûtra style and vice versa), accusative after vi-shvas (which, however, occurs elsewhere), and even the forms samgrahet (which should perhaps be samgrahayet, as, the correct samgrihnîyât occurs several times) and divyât