Contents.History of the manuscripts The text was considered lost by colonial era scholars, until a manuscript was discovered in 1905. A copy of the Arthashastra in Sanskrit, written on palm leaves, was presented by a from to the newly opened headed. The text was identified by the librarian Rudrapatnam Shamasastry as the Arthashastra. During 1905-1909, Shamasastry published English translations of the text in installments, in journals and Mysore Review.During 1923-1924, and published a new edition of the text, which was based on a manuscript in the. In the 1950s, fragmented sections of a north Indian version of Arthashastra were discovered in form of a manuscript in a library in,.
Aug 24, 2016 Download Free Malayalam Ebooks. Feed on Posts Comments. While I am able to read this book, unfortunately, I am unable to download it to my hard disc. Can you kindly look into this? Dilipan says: August 25, 2016 at 6:35 am. Jithin, The original files are scanned pdf. PDF files were automatically converted into kindle/epub versions.
A new edition based on this manuscript was published by Muni Jina Vijay in 1959. Kangle published a of the text, based on all the available manuscripts.
Numerous translations and interpretations of the text have been published since then.The text is an ancient treatise written in 1st millennium BCE Sanskrit, coded, dense and can be interpreted in many ways, with English and Sanskrit being grammatically and syntactically different languages. It has been called, by —whose translation was published in 2013 by —as the 'most difficult translation project I have ever undertaken', parts of the text are still opaque after a century of modern scholarship, and the translation of Kautilya's masterpiece intrigue and political text remains unsatisfactory. Authorship, date of writing, and structure The authorship and date of writing are unknown, and there is evidence that the surviving manuscripts are not original and have been modified in their history but were most likely completed in the available form between 2nd-century BCE to 3rd-century CE. Olivelle states that the surviving manuscripts of the Arthashastra are the product of a transmission that has involved at least three major overlapping divisions or layers, which together consist of 15 books, 150 chapters and 180 topics. The first chapter of the first book is an ancient table of contents, while the last chapter of the last book is a short 73 verse epilogue asserting that all thirty two Yukti – elements of correct reasoning methods – were deployed to create the text. Chanakya portrait in 1915 Shamasastry's Arthashastra translation.The Arthashastra, in Topic 109, Book 7 lists the causes of disaffection, lack of motivation and increase in economic distress among people. It opens by stating that wherever 'good people are snubbed, and evil people are embraced' distress increases.
Wherever officials or people initiate unprecedented violence in acts or words, wherever there is unrighteous acts of violence, disaffection grows. When the king rejects the, that is 'does what ought not to be done, does not do what ought to be done, does not give what ought to be given, and gives what ought not to be given', the king causes people to worry and dislike him.Anywhere, states Arthashastra in verse 7.5.22, where people are fined or punished or harassed when they ought not to be harassed, where those that should be punished are not punished, where those people are apprehended when they ought not be, where those who are not apprehended when they ought to, the king and his officials cause distress and disaffection. It is power and power alone which, only when exercised by the king with impartiality and in proportion to guilt either over his son or his enemy, maintains both this world and the next.The just and victorious king administers justice in accordance with Dharma (established law), Sanstha (customary law), Nyaya (edicts, announced law) and Vyavahara (evidence, conduct).— Arthashastra 3.1Book 3 of the Arthashastra, according to Trautmann, is dedicated to civil law, including sections relating to economic relations of employer and employee, partnerships, sellers and buyers. Book 4 is a treatise on criminal law, where the king or officials acting on his behalf, take the initiative and start the judicial process against acts of crime, because the crime is felt to be a wrong against the people of the state.
To undermine a ruling oligarchy, make chiefs of the enemy's ruling council infatuated with women possessed of great beauty and youth. When passion is roused in them, they should start quarrels by creating belief (about their love) in one and by going to another.— Arthashastra 11.1The Arthashastra dedicates many chapters on the need, methods and goals of secret service, and how to build then use a network of spies that work for the state.
The spies should be trained to adopt roles and guises, to use coded language to transmit information, and be rewarded by their performance and the results they achieve, states the text.The roles and guises recommended for Vyanjana (appearance) agents by the Arthashastra include ascetics, forest hermits, mendicants, cooks, merchants, doctors, astrologers, consumer householders, entertainers, dancers, female agents and others. It suggests that members from these professions should be sought to serve for the secret service. As one plucks one ripe fruit after another from a garden, so should the king from his kingdom.
Out of fear for his own destruction, he should avoid unripe ones, which give rise to revolts.—Stocking the Treasury, Arthashastra 5.2.70Arthashastra stipulates restraint on taxes imposed, fairness, the amounts and how tax increases should is implemented. Further, state Waldauer et al., the text suggests that the tax should be 'convenient to pay, easy to calculate, inexpensive to administer, equitable and non-distortive, and not inhibit growth. Fair taxes build popular support for the king, states the text, and some manufacturers and artisans, such as those of textiles, were subject to a flat tax. The Arthashastra states that taxes should only be collected from ripened economic activity, and should not be collected from early, unripe stages of economic activity. Historian of economic thought notes:Kautilya's discussion of taxation and expenditure gave expression to three Indian principles: taxing power of state is limited; taxation should not be felt to be heavy or exclusive discriminatory; tax increases should be graduated.Agriculture on privately owned land was taxed at the rate of 16.67%, but the tax was exempted in cases of famine, epidemic, and settlement into new pastures previously uncultivated and if damaged during a war.
New public projects such as irrigation and water works were exempt from taxes for five years, and major renovations to ruined or abandoned water works were granted tax exemption for four years. Temple and lands were exempt from taxes, fines or penalties. Trade into and outside the kingdom's borders was subject to toll fees or duties.
Taxes varied between 10% to 25% on industrialists and businessmen, and it could be paid in kind (produce), through labor, or in cash. Translations and scholarship The text has been translated and interpreted by Shamashastry, Kangle, Trautmann and many others. Recent translations or interpretations include those of and McClish. Influence and reception. Maurya Empire in Kautilya's timeScholars state that the Arthashastra was influential in Asian history.
Its ideas helped create one of the largest empires in South Asia, stretching from the borders of to Bengal on the other side of the Indian subcontinent, with its capital twice as large as Rome under Emperor.Kautilya's patron consolidated an empire which was inherited by his son Bindusara and then his grandson. With the progressive secularization of society, and with the governance-related innovations contemplated by the Arthashastra, India was 'prepared for the reception of the great moral transformation ushered in by Ashoka', and the spread of Buddhist, Hindu and other ideas across South Asia, East Asia and southeast Asia. Comparisons to Machiavelli In 1919, a few years after the newly discovered Arthashastra manuscript's translation was first published, stated:Truly radical 'Machiavellianism', in the popular sense of that word, is classically expressed in Indian literature in the Arthashastra of Kautilya (written long before the birth of Christ, ostensibly in the time of Chandragupta): compared to it, Machiavelli's The Prince is harmless.More recent scholarship has disagreed with the characterization of Arthashastra as 'Machiavellianism'. Track master for mac. In Machiavelli's The Prince, the king and his coterie are single-mindedly aimed at preserving the monarch's power for its own sake, states Paul Brians for example, but in the Arthashastra, the king is required 'to benefit and protect his citizens, including the peasants'. Kautilya asserts in Arthashastra that, 'the ultimate source of the prosperity of the kingdom is its security and prosperity of its people', a view never mentioned in Machiavelli's text. The text advocates 'land reform', states Brians, where land is taken from landowners and farmers who own land but do not grow anything for a long time, and given to poorer farmers who want to grow crops but do not own any land.Arthashastra declares, in numerous occasions, the need for empowering the weak and poor in one's kingdom, a sentiment that is not found in Machiavelli; Arthashastra, states Brians, advises 'the king shall provide the orphans, the aged, the infirm, the afflicted, and the helpless with maintenance welfare support.
He shall also provide subsistence to helpless women when they are carrying and also to the children they give birth to'. Elsewhere, the text values not just powerless human life, but even animal life and suggests in Book 2 that horses and elephants be given food, when they become incapacitated from old age, disease or after war.
Views on the role of the state , who relied entirely on the 1969 translation by Kangle for his analysis of Arthashastra, and who criticized an alternate 1992 translation by Rangarajan, has called the Arthashastra as 'a great political book of the ancient world'. He interprets that the 1st millennium BCE text is grounded more like the Soviet Union and China where the state envisions itself as driven by the welfare of the common good, but operates an extensive spy state and system of surveillance. This view has been challenged by Thomas Trautmann, who asserts that a free market and individual rights, albeit a regulated system, are proposed by Arthashastra.
Boesche is not summarily critical and adds:Kautilya's Arthashastra depicts a bureaucratic welfare state, in fact some kind of socialized monarchy, in which the central government administers the details of the economy for the common good.In addition, Kautilya offers a work of genius in matters of foreign policy and welfare, including key principles of international relations from a realist perspective and a discussion of when an army must use cruel violence and when it is more advantageous to be humane.Scholars disagree on how to interpret the document. Kumud Mookerji states that the text may be a picture of actual conditions in Kautilya's times. In contrast, Sastri, as well as Romila Thapar, quotes Brians, caution that the text, regardless of which translation is considered, must be seen as a normative document of strategy and general administration under various circumstances, but not as description of existing conditions. Other scholars such as Burton Stein concur with Thapar and Sastri, however, Bhargava states that given Kautilya was the prime minister, one must expect that he implemented the ideas in the book. Views on property and markets Thomas Trautmann states that the Arthashastra in chapter 3.9 does recognize the concept of land ownership rights and other private property, and requires the king to protect that right from seizure or abuse. This makes it unlike Soviet or China model of citizen's private property rights. There is no question, states Trautmann, that people had the power to buy and sell land.
However, Trautmann adds, this does not mean that Kautilya was advocating a capitalistic free market economy. Kautilya requires that the land sale be staggered and grants certain buyers automatic ', which is not free market. The Arthashastra states that if someone wants to sell land, the owner's kins, neighbors and creditors have first right of purchase in that order, and only if they do not wish to buy the land for a fair competitive price, others and strangers can bid to buy. Further, the price must be announced in front of witnesses, recorded and taxes paid, for the buy-sale arrangement to deemed recognized by the state.
The 'call rights' and staggered bid buying is not truly a free market, as Trautmann points out.The text dedicates Book 3 and 4 to economic laws, and a court system to oversee and resolve economic, contracts and market-related disputes. The text also provides a system of appeal where three dharmastha (judges) consider contractual disputes between two parties, and considers profiteering and false claims to dupe customers a crime. The text, states Trautmann, thus anticipates market exchange and provides a framework for its functioning.
Book on strategy anticipating all scenarios. We should never forget that the Arthashastra means by the 'state' an order of society which is not created by the king or the people, but which they exist to secure.
These authors regarded the 'state' – if that word might be used here – as essentially a beneficial institution for protection of human life and welfare and for the better realization of the ideals of humanity.—More recent scholarship presents a more nuanced reception for the text. Paul Brians states that the scope of the work is far broader than earlier much publicized perceptions indicate, and in the treatise can also be found compassion for the poor, for servants and slaves, and for women.The text, states Sihag, is a treatise on how a state should pursue economic development and it emphasized 'proper measurement of economic performance', and 'the role of ethics, considering ethical values as the glue which binds society and promotes economic development'. Kautilya in Arthashastra, writes Brians, 'mixes the harsh pragmatism for which he is famed with compassion for the poor, for slaves, and for women. He reveals the imagination of a romancer in imagining all manner of scenarios which can hardly have been commonplace in real life'. Realism India's former, states: 'Arthashastra is a serious manual on statecraft, on how to run a state, informed by a higher purpose, clear and precise in its prescriptions, the result of practical experience of running a state. It is not just a normative text but a realist description of the art of running a state'. The text is useful, according to Menon, because in many ways 'the world we face today is similar to the world that Kautilya operated in'.
He recommended reading of the book for broadening the vision on strategic issues. In popular culture. Mentioned in season 5 episode 22 of the TV show. Mentioned in season 3 Episode 1 of the TV show. The novel by Ashwin Sanghi.
The novel Blowback by Brad Thor. Mentioned in Hindi Serial in. Mentioned in season 3 episode 5 of the TV show. Mentioned in the book by David Christian. Mentioned in the book by Henry KissingerSee also.
and – Indian philosophical concepts.Notes.