6/13/2023 0 Comments Arthashastra in english![]() And, of course, it is also shot through with considerations of caste, so much so that one has to hold one’s nose while reading much of it. He has organised the work in the following way: the state and its constituent elements the king the nature of a well-organised state the treasury, its sources of revenue accounts, and functions of audit the civil service and its regulations law, justice and punishment covert operations foreign policy defence and war. I have the Penguin edition, edited and arranged by the former diplomat, L.N. Shamasastry also translated it, followed by Professor R.P. Shamasastry, in the first decade of the 20th century. The work is credited to Kautilya, who may or may not be Chanakya, the Brahmin who is supposed to have orchestrated the defeat of the Nanda king in the Gangetic belt.Īrthashastra was known through quotes in other historical works but the full text was unavailable till it was discovered on leaves by a librarian, R. One bit on battle and positional warfare is like Sun Tzu’s Written in prose 1,500 or 2,000 years ago - nobody is quite sure - the text is a set of books that are part constitution, part penal code, part taxation manual, part landscape manual, among other things. Yet (this is also why it is atypical), it is not widely read or taught. ![]() One’s eyes might glaze over after reading some of theĪrthashastra can easily hold the reader’s attention. ![]() For one, it is unlike the religious texts of that period in being quite precise and definite.
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