Nature of early Indian political thought
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Ancient thought
In the epoch that began with the philosophical movements which are expressed in the mystical texts known as Upanisads and culminated in the regime of the emperor Aśoka, whose rule extended over all but southernmost India, the dimensions of Indian social thought were established. During these formative centuries, roughly from the seventh to the middle of the third century B.C., new modes of economic production, the incorporation of indigenous peoples into the Aryan community, and other social changes rendered the old agencies of integration inadequate; with many of the certainties of life dissolving and new social relationships demanding new justifications, men were faced with the need to re-examine basic values and institutions. A variety of ideas about the nature and destiny of human life began to challenge traditional religious conceptions.
Cosmology
Discussion of a system of political beliefs and speculations requires a general understanding of the symbolic forms in terms of which reality is comprehended by a people. Men reveal reality to themselves through particular ways of seeing, which discriminate objects and events from the whole in which they are embedded. Observation is purposive behavior, and in the first stages of the development of human knowledge acts of discrimination and the assignment of meaning are closely bound together. Later, as thought becomes theoretical, the contents of experience are grouped and correlated, and in time strict definition becomes possible, as facts are subsumed under general ideas and conceptually grasped. When the subject of our investigation is the political thought of the last several centuries in Europe or America, the cosmology at the base of such ideas may be taken for granted. But the study of ancient civilizations cannot properly proceed without a consideration of symbolic and mythic materials, although such materials may be only indirectly related to political theory and although we may have to content ourselves with what is at best informed conjecture.
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In this attempt to discover the different ways in which the world is viewed we discover that, except for the Greeks in the classical age, existence is rarely comprehended in terms of a rational order which lends itself to intellectualistic investigation. More frequently the imagery is dramatic: the world derives its meaning from its creator rather than from the logic of its structure, and knowledge takes the form of mystic apprehension (gnosis) instead of rational inquiry. Insight into the meaning of a world not yet completed depends on revelation and supernatural capacities: the emphasis is on encounter instead of examination. In one version of this latter world view the god-creator involves himself in the universe, assuming a variety of forms and disguises. Man’s response to this sacred power may take the form of supplication or ritual, in which instance professionals are usually required to act as intermediaries between man and the holy. But sometimes the godhead is not seen as a deity possessing will and design, and the individual worshiper may seek through discipline and contemplation to merge himself in the cosmic process.
Ancient Indian political thought must be understood in the context of religious beliefs. In the earliest cosmology the political order was seen as analogous to the cosmos, its creation a repetition of the divine creation of the cosmic system. Vedic liturgy was essentially an effort to reproduce the cosmic order so as to ensure the effective functioning of society. By the later Vedic period the anthropomorphic gods of the heroic age had been eclipsed by more imposing and aloof deities, and the rituals had become a highly formalized religion with a complex ceremonialism. As religion came to be tied to technical expertise, the priests strengthened their position, isolating themselves from social controls. By the end of this period the Aryan invaders had extended their hegemony over the whole of the Gangetic plain.