Readings in Kautilya's Arthasastra

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SINCE its discovery in the early years of the twentieth century, the Kautilya Arthasastra has been used by scholars of Indian history with such a gusto as rarely seen in utilisation of any ancient source material. The present author has been for many years lecturing to his post-graduate students on this treatise, and has also contributed research papers on some topics pertaining to this work. Generally, scholars have drawn upon the Arthasastra to promote their views on ancient Indian administration in general and the Mauryan polity in particular. It has been treated more for corroboration of ideas or other sources, literary, archaeological and foreign accounts. In the essays collected in the present volume what has been attempted is to collect from all over the treatise what it contains about a particular topic under study and to analyse the data. In one word we have here what the Arthasastra has to say, without going into its date and authenticity and its position as regards other sources. It is true that a critical examination of the data collected here with may throw significant fresh light on the problem of the date as well.

It is recognised that the Arthasastra is a veritable mine of interesting information regarding many other aspects of life and institutions of the time which have not been treated in the present volume. It is proposed to take up the untouched subject together with discussion of its date and authenticity in a subsequent volume.

For the text and translation R.P. Kangle's volumes on Kautilya's Arthasästra have been relied upon.

**Contents and Sample Pages**