iv Vyavahāracanda songs of the different tribes in different provinces. Literary works of the earli- est days reaching down to our own days have been studied and published and splendid collections have been made of them in libraries. Well-ordered his- tories of the languages, of the religions, of the philosophies, of the customs and the castes as well as of the dynasties of the Indian kings have been written. Plenty of material has been thus made available for a study of India and it is being enriched from day to day. And yet Sanskrit religious literature is proba- bly of the highest importance in all the material mentioned above for a history of Indian sociology. For the Hindu view of life includes in the sphere of religious ideology all endeavour and thought for the conservation and advancement of society and that is why the history of Hinduism includes a substantial portion of the history of the social life of Hindus. The history of Hinduism in fact ought so to extend its sphere as to include a study of the family rites and religious usages, of the expiratory rites, of the sacrifices, of the festivities and modes of worship, of the fasts and the pilgrimages, of the religious faiths and of the gods, of meta- physical speculations and the philoso- phies, of the rules governing the indivi- dual conduct towards the family, the caste or society, of ethics, law and politics and of all social institutions of the Hindus. The religious literature of the Hindus affords all this material and the Dharma- kos'a is intended as a classified statement of this material, arranged according to general and special headings in chrono- logical order and as an exposition of the historical conclusions that may be gleaned from it. The quotations from Rgveda on each topic have been given the first place. For it stands as the oldest and most authoritative work. in our religious literature and it is in the Rgveda that the most important nucleus for a social history of India is to be found. Then follow the Yajurveda- Samhitas in the following order: the Tait- tiriya, the Kathaka, the Kapis'thala, the Maitrāyaṇīya and the Våjasaneyi. The Samhitãs of the Samaveda and Athar- vaveda follow next. Most of the verses of the Samaveda being identical with those of the Rgveda, the former may be regard- ed as belonging to the same period as the latter. Western scholars put the Yajur- veda-Samhitä as anterior to the Atharva- veda-Sainhita, but from the evidence it does not appear that they belong to different epochs, although from the point. of view of cultural evolution the culture. disclosed in the Atharva-Samhita appears to be less advanced and therefore earlier than that of the RV.-Samhitã. After the Samhitas follow Brahamaņas, the Aranya- kas and the Upanişadas in due order and then come the Nirukta, the S'rautasutras and Grhyasutras and the Dharmasutras. All this literature from the RV. to the Kalpasutras may safely be regarded as pre-Buddhistic. After this the next place has to be given to the two epics, the Manu- smrti, a part of which is probably pre- Buddhistic and a part post-Buddhistic, and the other smrties. Quotations from Pura- nas, Agamas, Tantras and similar; kinds of literature have been accord- ed the next place, and then finally come extracts from the ancient commentations and the authors of treatises, dating from the seventh century onwards, like असहाय,. विश्वरूप, मेधातिथि and विज्ञानेश्वर followed by those from later commentaries and treatises that were composed up to the end of the 18th century. 1. This ocean of literature conceals in its bosom valuable historical material which could throw a light on the history of Indian Sociology, which when arranged with the proper perspective, would most . truly reflect the social life, civilization and progress as well as the deterioration
