The ARTHASHASTRA

by Chanakya

I am grateful to Olav F. Knudsen, the Director of the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute, (NUPI), and his colleagues Jorgen Lochen and Ole Dahl-Gulliksen, for their assistance in printing out the typeset manuscript.

Above all, I am beholden to the pioneers, Dr. Kangle and Dr. Shamasastry, to whom this new translation is, in all humility, dedicated. I need not add that I alone bear the responsibility for any shortcomings.

It is not easy to define moksha; it is, basically, self-realization through liberation—the liberation from earthly bondage by realizing the divine in the human, the spiritual in the physical and the Atman or soul in the mind–body complex.

Dharma is law in its widest sense—spiritual, moral, ethical and temporal. Every individual, whether the ruler or the ruled, is governed by his or her own dharma.

To the extent that society respected dharma, society protected itself; to the extent society offended it, society undermined itself. The literature on the Dharmashastras, both the original scriptures and the commentaries thereon, is very extensive.

‘History of the Dharmashastra’ by D...

we need only observe that everything in Indian polity—the rights and duties of rulers, ministers, priests and people—is ...

artha has a much wider significance than merely ‘wealth’. The material well-being of individuals is a part of it.

‘The source of the livelihood of men is wealth’. He then draws the corollary that the wealth of a nation is both the territory of the state and its inhabitants who may follow a variety of occupations {15.1.1}.

The state or government has a crucial role to play in maintaining the material well-being of the nation and its people. Therefore, an important part of Arthashastras is ‘the science of economics’, including starting productive en...

‘A King with a depleted treasury eats into the very vitality of the citizens and the country’ says Kautilya {2.1.16}. At the same time, a King who impoverishes his own people or angers them by unjust exactions will also lose their loyalty {7.5.27}. A balance has to be maintained between the welfare of the people and augmenting the resources of the state.

The state has a responsibility for ensuring the observance of laws concerning relations between husbands and wives, inheritance, the rights of women, servants and slaves, contracts and similar civil matters. Further, there have to be laws to avoid losses to the state treasury and to prevent embezzlement or misuse of power by servants of the state. Therefore an integral part of Arthashastra is dandaniti, the enforcement of laws by a voluminous and comprehensive set of fines and punishments.

For example, the army is called danda. It is also one of the four methods of dispute settlement and connotes the use of force.

Kosadanda (the treasury and the army) is an expression which occurs often to indicate the combined economic power and military might of a state.

‘A king meting out unjust punishment is hated by the people he terrorises while one who is too lenient is held in contempt; whoever imposes just and deserved punishment is respected and honoured

The extensive responsibilities of the state for promoting economic well-being and preserving law and order demand an equally extensive administrative machinery.

A ruler’s duties in the internal administration of the country are three-fold: raksha or protection of the state from external aggression, palana or maintenance of law and order within the state, and yogakshema or safeguarding the welfare of the people.

The prosperity of the state and its inhabitants cannot be maintained unless new territory is acquired by settlement of virgin lands, by alliance or by conquest. In a political environment which had many kings, any one of them resting content with his own territory was likely to fall prey to the expansionist ambitions of another. How to deal with other kings by using peaceful or warlike methods is the foreign policy aspect of Arthashastra.

Since conquest is the most important method of acquisition (labha) of new territory, preparing for and waging war also becom...

Artha is an all-embracing word with a variety of meanings. In {1.7.6-7}, it is used in the sense of material well-being; in {15.1.1}, livelihood; in {1.4.3}, economically productive activity, particularly in agriculture, cattle rearing and trade; and, in general, wealth as in the ‘Wealth of Nations’. Arthashastra is thus ‘the science of politics’ as it is used in {1.1.1} or {1.4.3}. It is the art of government in its widest sense. The subjects covered include: administration; law, order and justice; taxation, revenue and expenditure; foreign policy; defence and war. Its three objectives follow one fro...

The Dharmashastras address themselves to the individual, teaching him his dharma, and regard deviations from it as sins to be expiated by ritual. The Arthashastras are addressed to rulers and regard transgressions of law as crimes to be punished by the state.

Kautilya was not the originator of the science. He himself acknowledges that his work is based on similar treatises of the past. There are in all one hundred and twelve places in the text where a number of earlier authorities and opinions held by them are mentioned. Five different schools of thought—those of Brihaspati, Ushanas, Prachetasa Manu, 3 Parasara and Ambhi—are referred to, often because Kautilya disagrees with the advice given by them. Some individual teachers of high repute, like Vishalaksha and Bharadwaja, are also quoted. From a number of quotations and references in later works, we know that there were at least four distinct schools and thirteen individual teachers of Arthashastra before Kautilya. (See Notes on Translation No.1). Unfortunately, all the earlier works are lost and Kautilya’s is the earliest text that has come down to us.

Who was Kautilya, this mastermind, who could write a definitive treatise on economics and government, at a time when large parts of the world were steeped in intellectual darkness? All sources of Indian tradition— Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain—agree that Kautilya (also referred to as Vishnugupta in a stanza traditionally included at the end of the work) destroyed the Nanda dynasty and installed Chandragupta Maurya on the throne of Magadha. 4

his parents noticed that Kautilya was born with a full set of teeth, a mark of a future king. They had the teeth removed (making him uglier) because either the father or the mother did not want him to become a king. He became a king-maker instead.

The incensed Kautilya vowed not to tie his forelock knot again until he had destroyed the Nanda dynasty root and branch.

He came upon the boy Chandragupta, of royal line but fostered by a cowherd, playing with his companions on the village grounds. The boy was acting the role of a king, dispensing justice and giving orders to his ‘ministers’. On the ascetic beseeching him for alms, the ‘king’ grandly gave away a herd of someone else’s cows! Kautilya was so impressed with the boy’s leadership qualities that he bought the boy then and there for a thousand panas, took him to Taxila and gave him an education fit for a future king.

‘You are just like Chandragupta!’ because he had got his fingers burnt by starting to eat from the centre of a hot dish. They changed their tactics and began the conquest from the frontiers. Chandragupta then entered into an alliance with the King of a mountain kingdom. Though the young Maurya and his supporters were inferior in armed strength, they began by harassing the outlying areas. Garrisons were stationed in each conquered state to prevent a revolt behind them.

One story about the conquest is that when Chandragupta failed to conquer a town he was besieging, Kautilya entered it disguised as a beggar and predicted that the siege would be lifted if the people removed the idols from a temple. The gullible population did so and the besiegers pretended to withdraw. When the citizens were celebrating their supposed liberty, the attackers returned to take them by surprise.

Kautilya then retired from active life and reflected on all that he had learnt. Having found earlier works on statecraft unsatisfactory in many respects, he composed his own definitive work.