Kautilya begins his magnum opus, the Arthasastra, with salutations to Sukra and Brihaspati, and then goes on to state that this treatise is a compilation of material, distilled from different earlier sources. Among his predecessors, Kautilya quotes extensively, either for support or for criticism, from the authors of the schools of Brihaspati, Usanas (Sukra), Manu, Parasara, and Ambhi, and from individual political thinkers-Bharadvaja, Visalaksha, Pisuna, Kauņapadanta, Vatavyadhi, and Bahudantiputra. Another authority, often quoted by him, is Acharyah. The present monograph is an attempt to present a comprehensive account of the vision of these pre-Kautilya thinkers, as gleaned primarily from the Kautiliyam.
The work is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 is Introduction, and consists of five sections: 1.1-The Arthasastra Tradition; 1.2-Pre-Kautilya Thinkers; 1.3-Chronological Order of Pre-Kautilya Thinkers; 1.4 A Note on Acharyah; and 1.5-Enumeration of Vidyas. Chapter 2 is concerned with Svamin: The King, and comprises four sections: 2.1-Relative Merits of Different Types of Rulership; 2.2-Manner in which Danda should be Inflicted by the King; 2.3-Relative Importance of Mantrasakti, Utsahasakti, and Prabhavasakti, and of Sakti, Desa, and Kala; and 2.4-Prince as Potential Danger to the King. Chapter 3 deals with Amatya: The High Official, and has four sections: 3.1-Appointment of Amatyas; 3.2-Upadha: The Secret Tests; 3.3-Mantra (Counsel), and the Maintenance of the Secrecy of Counsel; and 3.4-Actions Recommended for the Amatya, when a Calamity Afflicts the King.
Chapter 4 has Prakriti and Vyasana: The Constituents of the State, and Maladies as its subject, and consists of four sections: 4.1-Saptanga: The Seven Prakritis or Constituent Elements of the State; 4.2-Relative Seriousness of the Vyasanas of the Seven Prakritis; 4.3-The Two Groups of Human Vices, and 4.4 Relative Seriousness of Calamities of Divine or Human Origin. Shadgunya: Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Warfare are dealt with in Chapter 5, which consists of seven sections: 5.1-Shadgunya: The Six Measures of Foreign Policy; 5.2-Types of Allies More Advantageous to Secure; 5.3-Choice between Diplomatic Moves and Actual Warfare; 5.4 Occasion for Marching against the Enemy; 5.5-Types of Enemies, against whom it is More Advantageous to March; 5.6-Options Available to a Weaker King, when Threatened by a Stronger King; and 5.7-Battle Formations.
Chapter 6 is concerned with Legal and Socio-Economic Aspects, and has ten sections: 6.1-Punishment for Loss of Revenue to the State Exchequer; 6.2-Detection of Cases of Embezzlement; 6.3-Sahasa and Sahasadanda; 6.4 Non-payment of Debts; 6.5-Partition of the Father's Property; 6.6 Partition of a Poor Man's Property; 6.7-Ownership' of the Kshetraja Son; 6.8-Residence fit for a Wife, Discarded by her Husband; 6.9-Kinds of Undertakings to be Preferred in Abhūtapurva Janapada; and 6.10-Choice between a Small but Quick Gain, and a Large but Slow Gain. The last chapter, Chapter 7, is Conclusion, and consists of two sections: 7.1-General Observations; and 7.2-Unethical Approach. Appendix 1 deals with Tantrayukti: The Thirty-two Devices of the Treatment of Sciences; Appendix 2 is a brief discussion of the form, 'Kautilya' or 'Kautalya', for the author of the Arthasastra; Appendix 3 is a concise survey of the issues of the authorship and date of the Arthasastra.
1.1. The Arthasastra Tradition
1.1.1. Arthasastra, the science of politics, is known by various names-kshatravidya, dandaniti, rajaniti, nitisastra, rajaśastra rajavidya rajadharma and 1 The term occurs as early as the Chhandogyopanishad 7. 1. 2. It has been translated as 'the science of politics' by Srisa Chandra Vasu (Chhandogyopanishad, translated by Srisa Chandra Vasu as Chhandoga Upanisad. Sacred Books of the Hindus 3, (Allahabad. 1910), pp. 453-454), and as 'the science of government' by Patrick Olivelle (The Early Upanisads Annotated Text and Translation, (Oxford University Press. 1998), pp. 258-259).
2 Mahabharata, (Critical edition) 12. 59. 78; Arthasastra 1. 2. 1.
3 Mahabharata, (Critical edition) 7. 127. 19; 12. 38. 9.
4 Mahabharata, (Critical edition) 12. 58. 3.
5 Mahabharata, (Critical edition) 6. 31. 2.
6 Mahabharata, (Critical edition) 12. 56. 3. As early as 1959, UN Ghoshal (A History of Indian Political Ideas (The Ancient Period and the Period of Transition to the Middle Ages), (Oxford University Press. 1959), p. 82) had referred to two approaches to statecraft in ancient India. One is rajadharma, 'the law for kings', which deals with statecraft as 'an incident in a comprehensive scheme of caste duties deriving their source primarily from the eternal Vedas'. The other approach 'concerns itself as a rule with the inductive investigation of the phenomena of the State'. This echoes in the statement of Hartmut Scharfe (The State in Indian Tradition, (Leiden. 1989), p. 215): Arthasastra differs from rajadharma, in that while the latter focusses on the scheme of class duties, and brings out the psychology of politics, the former is practical and empirical, and nripasastra, of which kshatravidya is believed to be the oldest; however, it was soon superseded by dandaniti. D R Bhandarkar regards arthasastra as a part of dandaniti. U N Ghoshalt suggests that dandanīti was originally a branch of the more comprehensive science of arthasastra, but the distinction between arthasastra and dandaniti was, later on, obliterated, as, for example, in the Mahabharata and in Vijnanesvara's commentary on Yajnvalkyasmriti 1. 313.12
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