Polity And Administration In The Matsya Purana

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

"The author has produced an objective and critical account of the data pertaining to polity and administration in the Matsya Purana. He has discussed the date of the Purana and compared its ideas with those found in the Mahabharata, the Arthasastra of Kautilya, the Smritis and some other Puranas. He has consulted the work of many other modern writers and also shown some knowledge of western political thinkers in several occasions. His presentation is clear and critical. In the whole the work adds to the knowledge of ancient Indian polity and is well documented."

Dr. S.K. Jaiswal was born on Nov. 4, 1958, passed his M.A. Examinations in Political Science & Ancient Indian History & Archaeology from the University of Lucknow and obtained Ph.D. Degree in Ancient Indian History & Archaeology in 1987 from the same University. He was awarded. Research Associateship from University Grants Commission in 1990. He also published a book entitled 'Hindu Rajaśăstra' in 1994. Besides teaching work of graduate and Post-graduate classes in the Department of Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, University of Lucknow, he has so far written ten research papers in various journals of repute. He is presently busy working on different aspects on socio- economic life and values in Ancient India.

The present book, 'Polity and Administration in the The Matsya Purana is the revised version of Dr. Surendra Kumar Jaiswal which earned him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient Indian History and Archaeology of Lucknow University.

The Matsya Purana is one of the important Puranas. After discussing the views of Pargiter and Hazra, Dr. Jaiswal rightly concludes that this Purana should be ascribed to c. 2nd century AD to c. 4th century AD. The nine chapters of this work deal with the State, Kingship, Ministers, Fiscal Administration, Army Organization, Judicial Administration, Inter-State Relations, Public Services and Administrative Divisions, with an Introduction in the begining and a Conclusion at the end.

Dr. Jaiswal has compared the information culled from the Matsya Purana with the information gleaned from other Puranas, the Arthašastra, Epics, the smṛilis, the Nitisira, and the pigraphic sources on the subject.

Dr. Jaiswal's approach is critical and balanced, his anguage and resentation are good. I earnestly commend this ook to scholars and students of Ancient Indian polity.

The value of the Puranas as a source of ancient Indian history and culture, has been justly emphasised by the eminent scholar Prof. H.H. Wilson, who had drawn the attention of historians to the importance of the Puranic studies for the first time. Prof. Wilson had studied the Vishnu Purana and drew a number of conclusions. Prior to the systematic study of the Vishnu Purana there obtained a general belief that the Puranas are a compilation of imaginary stories and folklores. Later F.E. Pargiter' established the value of the Puranas as an important source of the dynastic history of ancient India.

Approximately until sixty years ago no systematic study of the Puranas as a source of ancient Indian history had been made. We are indebted to Prof. Dikshitar who wrote two books, the Matsya Purana-A study and Some Aspects of the Vayu Purana. In these books, Prof. Dikshitar had tried to discuss genealogies, philosophy, music, cosmogony, architecture, polity etc. He also published an article "Polity in the Puranas" in which he made good use of the Vishnu, the Markandeya and the Agni Puranas. Unfortuately, this article consists of only four pages. The inspiration to study the polity and administration as depicted in the Matsya Purana has been drawn from the famous work of Dr. K.P. Jayaswal, the Hindu Polity. It has been found that while separate, isolated and promiscuous studies of ancient Indian political thought have been undertaken, there is no comprehensive work dealing with the Puranic polity exhaustively. The present work attempts to fill this gap.