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| Kautilya's Arthashastra | |
|---|---|
_which_was_found_in_1905_03.jpg){kind=small} 16th century Arthashastra manuscript in Grantha script kept at the Oriental Research Institute, Mysore | |
| Information | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Author | multiple authors;[1][a] main compiler or redactor Kautilya,[2][1] also known as Vishnugupta and Chanakya,[3][4] as later additions and traditions also mention Vishnugupta and Chanakya.[2][5][a] |
| Language | Sanskrit |
| Period | 1st-3rd century ce;[6][1][a] traditional dating 3rd century BCE |
| Full text | |
 Arthashastra at English Wikisource | |
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Kautilya's Arthashastra (Sanskrit: अर्थशास्त्रम्, IAST: Kautiliyam Arthaśāstram; transl. Kautilya's compendium on worldly affairs) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, politics, economic policy and military strategy.[7][b] The text is likely the work of several authors over centuries,[8] starting as a compilation of Arthashastras, texts which according to Olivelle date from the 2nd c. BCE to the 1st c. CE.[9] These treatises were compiled and amended in a new treatise, according to McClish and Olivelle in the 1st century CE by either an anonymous author or Kautilya, though earlier and later dates have also been proposed.[a] While often regarded as created by a single author, McClish and Olivelle argue that this compilation, possibly titled Daņdanīti, served as the basis for a major expansion and redaction in the 2nd or 3rd century CE by either Kautilya or an anonymous author, when several books, dialogical comments, and the disharmonious chapter-division were added,[c] and a stronger Brahmanical ideology was brought in.[10] The text thus became a proper arthashastra, and was retitled to Kautilya's Arthashastra.[9][11]
Two names for the text's compilor or redactor are used in the text, Kauṭalya (Kautilya) and Vishnugupta.[2] Chanakya (375–283 BCE), the counsellor of Chandragupta Maurya, is implied in a later interpolation, reinforced by Gupta-era and medieval traditions, which explicitly identified Kautilya with Chanakya.[12] This identification started during the Gupta reign (c. 240–c. 579), strengthening the Gupta's ideological presentation as heirs of the Mauryas.[13] Early on, the identification has been questioned by scholarship, and rejected by the main studies on the topic since 1965,[a] because of stylistic differences within the text which point to multiple authorship, and historical elements which are anachronistic for the Mauryan period, but fit in the first centuries of the Common Era.[2][d] The Arthashastra was influential until the 12th century,[14] when it disappeared. It was rediscovered in 1905 by R. Shamasastry, who published it in 1909.[15] The first English translation, also by Shamasastry, was published in 1915.[16]
The Sanskrit title, Arthashastra, can be translated as 'treatise on "political science"' or "economic science" or simply "statecraft",[17][e] as the word artha (अर्थ) is polysemous in Sanskrit;[18] the word has a broad scope.[19] It includes books on the nature of government, law, civil and criminal court systems, ethics, economics, markets and trade, the methods for screening ministers, diplomacy, theories on war, nature of peace, and the duties and obligations of a king.[20][21] The text incorporates Hindu philosophy,[22] includes ancient economic and cultural details on agriculture, mineralogy, mining and metals, animal husbandry, medicine, forests and wildlife.[23]
The Arthashastra explores issues of social welfare, the collective ethics that hold a society together, advising the king that in times and in areas devastated by famine, epidemic and such acts of nature, or by war, he should initiate public projects such as creating irrigation waterways and building forts around major strategic holdings and towns and exempt taxes on those affected.[24] The text was influenced by Hindu texts such as the sections on kings, governance and legal procedures included in Manusmriti.[25][26]
- ^ a b c McClish 2019, p. 152-153.
- ^ a b c d Olivelle 2013, pp. 1, 34–35.
- ^ McLean & McMillan 2003.
- ^ Boesche 2003, p. 8.
- ^ Ray 2024.
- ^ Olivelle 2013.
- ^ Olivelle 2013, pp. 1–5, 24–25, 31.
- ^ Olivelle 2013, pp. 24–25, 31–33.
- ^ a b Olivelle 2013, pp. 30–31.
- ^ McClish 2019, p. 144.
- ^ McClish 2019, p. 142-143, 152-153.
- ^ Olivelle 2013, pp. 31–38.
- ^ Olivelle 2013, p. 34.
- ^ Rathanasara, Kaudagammana (February 2023). "An example of the use of Indian political theories in ancient Sri Lanka (Related to the reign of King Parakramabahu I)". International Conference on Vedic Jurisprudence & Its Impact on Contemporary World.
- ^ Allen, Charles (21 February 2012). Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor. London: Hachette UK. ISBN 9781408703885. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- ^ Boesche 2002, p. 8.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Boesche 2003was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary 1899 Advanced". www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- ^ Rangarajan, L.N. (1987). The Arthashastra (Introduction). New Delhi: Penguin Books. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9788184750119. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
- ^ Olivelle 2013, pp. 1–62, 179–221.
- ^ Thomas Trautmann (2012), Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, Penguin, ISBN 978-0670085279, pages xxv-27
- ^ R. Chadwick; S. Henson; B. Moseley (2013). Functional Foods. Springer Science. p. 39. ISBN 978-3-662-05115-3.
During the same period, an ancient Hindu text (the Arthashastra) included a recipe...
Arvind Sharma (2005). Modern Hindu Thought: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-19-567638-9.Arthasastra, the major surviving Hindu text on polity, attributed to Chanakya (also known as Kautilya)...
Stephen Peter Rosen (1996). Societies and Military Power: India and Its Armies. Cornell University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0801432101.The most important single text in Hindu political philosophy is Kautilya's Arthasastra [...]
- ^ Olivelle 2013, pp. 122–175.
- ^ Olivelle 2013, pp. 101, 228–229, 286–287.
- ^ Olivelle 2013, pp. 29, 52.
- ^ Olivelle 2004.
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