The ' Primitive ' in the Kauṭilya's Arthas'āstra

In the ancient and medieaval Indian literature on various subjects we can find numerous traces of primitive (irrational, prescientific) way of thinking. Thus not only in the Atharva- veda but in all the vedic literature including Upani-ads there are many primitive thoughts, inagico religious beliefs and practices, superstitions etc. The same is true in connection

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थिते कौटिल्य के 'अर्थशास्त्र' में बिखरी जादू-धार्मिक तथा अतार्किक सामग्री का सर्वेक्षण करते हैं, जिसकी ऐसे ग्रन्थ में अपेक्षा न थी। उसमें कृष्ण और शुक्ल दोनों प्रकार का जादू, सप्रयोजन अनुष्ठान, बलि तथा देव-नमन मिलते हैं; वे इसे अथर्ववेद से लेकर पुराणों और शास्त्रों तक फैली परम्परा में रखते हैं। Thite surveys the magico-religious and irrational material in Kautilya's Arthasastra, a text whose subject ought to leave no room for it: black and white magic, rites with worldly aims, offerings and obeisance to gods. He sets it in a pattern running from the Atharvaveda through the epics and the sastras.

Written by the archive’s cataloguers, not by the author.