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*

---

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