Chapter 22 - Introduction to Artha-Shastra (polity)

In India Polity is given the name Arthasastra. In it light is thrown on artha which is the second of the four Purusarthas, the aims of life. The thinking about Polity had developed quite early as can be seen from the Grhyasutra of Hiranyakesin and the Mahabharata. The first expression of the principles of Polity can be seen in the gnomic verses in earlier works which touch many of the points that came to be discussed in the later treatises. It is said in the Mahabharata that Lord Brahma had composed the Arthasastra in hundred thousand parts (khandas) which Siva in the form of Visalaksa had condensed in ten thousand parts. Indra had further reduced it to 5000 parts and Brhaspati and Usanas to 3000 and 1000 parts respectively. In the Mahabharata itself there is discussion about Polity in some of its sections. It is possible, that a certain Arthasastra might have been put to use in that connection. Upto the nineteenth century the Western scholars and some of their Indian counterparts held the view that there was no systematic text in Sanskrit that dealt with the discipline of Polity. This view met with an effective rebuttal when the untiring efforts of R. Shama Sastri led to the discovery of the Arthasastra in 1905 which he published in 1909 with English translation. Its publication created quite a stir in the then scholarly.community for its encyclopaedic contents that touched gitized by S 3 Foundation USA

practically every discipline of knowledge. It is a treatise not only on statecraft which it deals with in extenso but also on Economics, international relations and arts and crafts , the laying of cities and villages, trade and commerce and so on. There is no authentic information available yet about the author of this celebrated work. Tradition has three names for him-Kautalya or Kautilya, Visnugupta and Canakya. Of these the first two have the evidence for them in the text itself. The work starts with the statement: Kautilyena krtam sastram, the text created or composed by Kautilya, a statement corroborated by the occurrence in the work of the expressions iti Kautilyah, neti Kautilyah. There is a lot of discussion as to whether the form of the name is Kautalya or Kautilya. According to T. Ganapati Sastri it has to be Kauttalya. The one with i (ikaramadhya) he calls misnomer for neither the term Kautilya nor its basic form Kutila is explained in the Nighantus as Gotrarsi. On the other hand, Kutala is is mentioned by Kesavasvamin in his Nanartharnavasanksepa as meaning both Gotrarsi and an ornament: atha syat kutalo gotrakrtyarsau pumsi nap punah/ vidyad abharane 'tha trih kutilam kuncite bhavet// Whatever be the case, the name Kautilya has come to stick to the great statesman. Popular pronunciation does effect change in the form of words. That the author had the name Visnugupta also gets corroboration from the last stanza of the work where it is said that 'noticing many a time the difference of opinion among the interpretation of various texts Visnugupta himself wrote the work and the commentary': drstva viprapattim bahudha sastresu bhasyakaranam/ CC-0. Profs vayam tevavisnuguptas CakaPa Sutram ca bhasyam call

The name Visnugupta, meaning protected by Visnu is said to have been given to him by his father at the christening, namakarana, ceremony. There is no solid evidence yet for the name Canakya though popular tradition associates the work with it. From the form of the name it would appear that he was the son of one Canaka, a view that gets support from a statement in Hemacandra's Abhidhanacintamani which is interesting in that it records quite a few other names of him too: Vatsyayano Mallanagah Kautilyas Canakatmajah/ Dramilah Paksmilasvami Visnugupto 'ngulas ca sahll According to T. Ganapati Sastri and M. B. Krishna Rao, Canakya was so called because he belonged to a place of that name. According to Ananad Prakash Awasthi Canakya was called so because he belonged to Canaka Gotra. Before proceeding on with the study of the work it may be pertinent to refer here to a statement about its author-here he is clearly referred to as Kautilya-wherein it is said that after having gone through all the texts and seen through their practical application he has composed the text for administration for the use of kings : sarvasastrany anukramya prayogam upalabhya ca/ Kautilyena narendrarthe sasanasya vidhih krtah// (2.26.10). There are various legends associated with Kautilya. According to one Sakatara, a minister in the court of Mahananda Padma, the last of the Nanda rulers of Magadha, having fallen out with his master and having suffered insult at his hands out of revenge had beseated Kautilya whom he had discovered in a forest sitting on the branch of a tree that he was cutting, in the row of the Brahmanas at a Sraddha ceremony in the royal court. To this another Brahmana of the name of Subandhu objected. Upholding his objection the king turned him out in a very

insulting way. Kautilya then vowed that he would avenge the insult. This is what resulted in his extirpating the Nandas and putting Candragupta Maurya on the throne. Another legend connects him with the Greek ambassador Megasthenes. When the latter went to meet him the former was looking through official files. On being informed by his servant keeping vigil outside the gate of his humble hut of his arrival, he snuffed out the lamp and lit another lamp. Megasthenes noticed this and asked him as to why he had done so. To this Kautilya answered that before his arrival he had been engaged in State work and therefore used the lamp provided by the State. Now that he was receiving him in his personal capacity he was using the lamp that he had got through his own earnings. Being the Prime Minister of Candragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya dynasty, it is not difficult to decide about the date of Kautilya. It is around 4 th cen. B.C. It may be pointed out here that the Arthasastra is not the very first work of its kind. A number of works had already preceded it. Kautilya himself acknowledges this. Says he: "I have composed this text, the Arthasastra, after having drawn the gist in general of all the Arthasastras composed by the earlier Acaryas for the good and the well-being of the earth: prthivya labhe palane ca yavanty arthasastrani purvacaryaih prasthapitani prayasas tani samhrtyaikam idam arthasastram krtam. He has mentioned by name several of his predecessors: Bharadvaja, Visalaksa, Parasara, Pisuna, Kaundapadanta, Vatavyadhi, Bahudantiputra, Katyayana, Ghotamukha, Dirghacarayana, Pisunaputra, Kinjalka and so on. Kautilya has explained the word Arthasastra that he adopted as title of his work. According to him artha means the earth, the habitat of the people and sastra the means for their good and well-being: manusyanam prthivyam vrttir arthah, tasyah prthivya labhapalanopayah saslection New Delhi, Digitized by $3 Foundation USA arthasastram iti, "the source of ha

livelihood is men's wealth. The science which is the means of attainment and protection of that is the science of Polity". A study of the ancient Sanskrit literature reveals that the word Arthasastra for Polity had two other compeers for it, one, Rajadarsana or Rajasastra and the other, Dandaniti. It occurs as the fourth of the four Vidyas, departments of knowledge, the first three being Anviksiki, Trayi and Varta: anviksiki trayi varta dandanitis ca sasvati, metaphysics, the three Vedas, agriculture and administration of justice which is eternal. In India man's life is governed by four aims, collectively called Purusarthacatustaya. These are Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksa. Of these the last, Moksa is for life hereafter while the three are for life here. The texts dealing with them are called, the Dharmasastra, the Arthasastra, the Kamasastra and the Moksasastra respectively. Since the Moksasastra stands in a category in itself not dealing with the world as such, the other three dealing with the world are grouped together under the title Trivarga. The Arthasastra has attracted good attention since the time it was brought to light by Shama Sastri. He had discovered it in 1904 in the course of his search of manuscripts and brought out its edition based on a single manuscript in 1909 with English translation in the Mysore Government Sanskrit Series. The next most important edition of it was by T. Ganapati Sastri which he brought out in three volumes in 1921, 24 and 25 in Trivandrum Sanskrit Series with his Sanskrit commentary Srimula. He was not happy with the translation of Shama Sastri which he found abounding in errors that prompted him to bring out the Arthasastra's new edition based on new manuscripts. His diligent search for them yielded good results. He first discovered two palm leaf manuscripts of it in Malayalam characters in the library of Swamiyar Matham at Thirupparpu that were almost free from errors. The search continuing, he found two other Madras manuscriptsy in the Govt Oriental Manuscript Library, Madr

of which one was almost a copy of a manuscript in Malayalam characters belonging to the Raja of Edappalli in the Travancore State. A fifth manuscript of it was also found in the Manuscript Library, Cochin but it was far too much worn out. Apart from the manuscripts of the text the learned savant also found manuscripts of two commentaries in Sanskrit on the work from the Govt. Oriental Library, Madras . One was the commentary Pratipadacandrika by Bhattasvamin that dealt with the portion from the 8 th to the last chapter of the second Adhikarana. The other was the Nayacandrika of Madhavayajvan which covered the portion from the 7 th Adhyaya of the 7 th Adhikarana up to 4 th Adhyaya of the 12 th Adhikarana. Scantily noticed by scholars, the critical edition and the Sanskrit commentary of T. Ganapati Sastri are the best source for the proper understanding of the Arthasastra, with all its technical jargon none too familiar. Among the studies of the work the most notable is that of R.P. Kangle in three volumes. Other works of note on the Arthasastra are the Arthasastra by J. Jolly and R. Schimdt, Kautilya's Arthasastra by N.P.Unni, Kautilya's Arthasastra and Modern World by Radhavallabh Triparthi, Politico-Geographical Analysis of the Arthasastra by Rajendra Prasad, Kautilya's Political Theory by Ritu Kohli, Kautilya's Arthasastra-A Legal, Critical and Analytical Study by V.K. Gupta, Arthasastra (English translation) by M.B. Chande, Kautilyam Arthasastram by Pandeya Ramtej Shastri with the Hindi commentary Ranjana, Kautilya ke Arthika Vicara by Bhagawan Das Kela, Kautiliya Rajaniti by Bhuvaneswaridatt Mishra, Kautiliya Arthasastra ka Sarveksana by M. B. Krishna Rao, Kautilya ke Rajanitika evam Samajika Vicara by Manishankar Prasad, Kautilya ke Arthasastra men Rajyadarsana by Manjulata Sharma, Kautilya Arthasastra men Satta evam Rajaniti by Rajanikant Pandey, Kautiliya Arthasastra by Hariomsharan Niranjan. In addition to these there is a large number of articles in journals and magazines and Digitized by

references to it in an equally large number of works on Polity, Economics and Sociology. The number of these studies in the form of books, articles and references is so large that preparation of a full-fledged bibliography of it has become a desideratum. In spite of extensive work having been done on it, there are certain areas in it that need revisiting. The Arthasastra is a vast work of encyclopaedic character, as said earlier, with its fifteen Adhikaranas, Divisions, one hundred and fifty Adhyayas, chapters and six thousand verses, as mentioned by Kautilya himself in the introductory portion of his work. The political ideas of the author of the Arthasastra are all very remarkable and seem to have been based on his own personal experience. All the works on Polity coming after this monumental work are based on it. One of the Western scholars has rightly termed it as a library in itself. The political ideology of it is based on the monarchical system but it was no autocratic monarchy. All the ancient authorities on Polity are of the unanimous opinion that the foremost duty of a king is to provide safety and security to his subjects as also happiness to them. The very word rajan is explained as one who delights his subjects, raja prakrtiranjanat. [The idea of providing happiness and satisfaction to the subjects got so profoundly ingrained in the mind of the thinkers that the very etymology of the word rajan has been changed accordingly. Normally the word should be derived from Vraj (rajr diptau) 'to be majestic' but that was of not much consequence to political thinkers. What was of consequence was the ranjana, 'to please, to satisfy'. Hence its derivation from √raj than from √ranj which is not possible grammatically.] The second important duty of a king is to keep an eye on the rulers of other countries so that they may not cause any disaffection or trouble in his own and engage them in fight were they attempt to do so. Both these duties are given two different CC-0. Prof. Saya Vrat Shastri Collection, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

names of tantra and avapa which Kautilya describes in detail in his work . He also speaks of the administrative principles and the rules and the regulations governing them and the procedures for protecting the territorial integrity of the country and expanding its boundaries to earn name and fame. Here it may be emphasized that the work, the Arthasastra, has its utility not only for comprehending the situation as existing in India in the past but also as existing in India at present. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the powers that be in India at present have recognized the utility of the work in this respect. According to a news item appearing in the Dainik Jagarana of Kanpur in its issue of August 1, 2002 the Defence Research and Development Organization of India has assigned a big project on the study of the Arthasastra for increasing the efficiency of India's armed forces to scientists at the University of Pune. Some of the ideas and principles of the Arthasastra have withstood the test of time and are applicable to all situations for all times. These need to be fully grasped and applied in the present context. There is so much of talk of the improvement of the condition of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, Dalits as they are called. Kautilya had realized it more than two millennia back. It was he who had opened up other avenues of life to Sudras They were not only to serve the twice-born only, they could engage themselves in economic callings, namely, agriculture, cattle-rearing, trade and commerce and be artisans and actors: sudrasya dvijatisusrusa varta karukusilavakarma ca. He was bold enough to rebut the view of his predecessors that for purposes of recruitment in army preference need to be given to members of the four castes in the descending order, viz., Brahmanas followed by Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras. He reversed the order. According to him it had to be an ascending ccorder, sfrom Sudras to Brahmanas. What is necessary in the by

troops for fighting purposes is strength, boldness, grit and resilience. Sudras possess them better then the members of the other castes. According to him by prostration an enemy may win over Brahmana troops, A Ksatriya army trained in the art of weapons or a Vaisya or a Sudra army possessed of great valour is better: pranipatena brahmanabalam paro 'bhiharayet, praharanavidyavinitam tu ksatriyabalam sreyah, bahulasaram va vaisyasudrabalam iti (9.137-139.2). The Sudras had also been given land rights: Sudrakarsakaprayam kulasatavasram pancasatakulaparam gramam krosadvikrosasimanam anyonyaraksam nivesayet (171.1)., "The king should set up villages consisting each of not less than a hundred families or not more than five hundred families of agricultural people of Sudra caste with boundaries extending upto as far as a krosa or two and capable of protecting each other." He had approved of diplomatic assignments for the Sudras as well. A full chapter in his work under the title 'Dasakarmakarakalpam' deals with the laws and the duties of servants. Corruption is the biggest disease that is eating into the vitals of the country leading to its being ranked as the 126 th of the most corrupt countries of the world. Kautilya had realized early enough as to how difficult it is not to fall a prey to the greed of lucre in departments dealing with fiscal matters, as he graphically puts it that "it is not possible not to taste sugar while being in the godown of it." He therefore, specially enjoins upon the ruler to exercise utmost caution in making appointments in them and keeping in place a special spy network that could be the version of his time of the Anti-corruption Task Force of the present day. As a matter of fact, in his scheme of things spy network had a massive role to play. The Govt. of India now is laying great emphasis on the spread of literacy with its programmes like the Sarva Siksa Abhiyana. Kautilya had realized the importance of it much earlier. Says he avidyavinayah purusavyasanahetuh. Avinito hi

vyasanadosan na pasyati. (8.129.3), "absence of training in lores is the cause of a man's vices. For, an untrained person does not see the faults in vices". There is a very interesting discussion in the work on Svacakra and Paracakra that has its relevance to the present day situation. Svacakra means one's own country and Paracakra the other's country. The discussion is about the point as to which of the two, the disturbance in one's own country and the disturbance in another's country is a matter of greater concern to the ruler. According to some it is the disturbance in one's own country, Svacakra, which could be caused by disaffection among people and their taking to a rebellious path occasioned by excessive taxation, repressive measures and other reasons than the disturbance in another country. According to Kautilya it is disturbance in another country which is a matter for far greater worry for a ruler than the disturbance in his own country. That is the situation that India is facing today. A disturbed Pakistan or Afghanistan is in no way in the interest of India. Its spill over effect would simply be disastrous. Its greatest worry is the nuclear arsenal of the neighbouring country falling in undesirable hands. Svacakra can be controlled somehow and is, therefore, a matter for less worry but Paracakra over which one has no control is a matter of far greater worry. Kautilya was a great political thinker of his time who with his pragmatic approach that may appear ruthless at times to the so-called human rights activists was able to carve out a cohesive State with vast swathes of territory under it out of the fragmented landscape crisscrossed by hundreds of small principalities and fiefdoms. Termed as the Mecheavally of India and often maligned and misunderstood, he gave to the country not only an empire that united it but also a text on statecraft and polity that will have its relevance for CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shaste tall, Nimeshi. The Arthasastra is a unique

manual of administration in all its varied ramifications with a philosophy of its own. Apart from the Arthasastra he had written the Canakyaniti, variously called Canakya Rajaniti or Rajanitisamuccaya and the Canakya Sutras. The Canakyaniti is in the form of gnomic/ didactic verses and the Canakya Sutras in the form of aphorisms giving in a succinct form the principles of Polity. Following the Arthasastra a number of works came up on Polity which distinctly have on them an imprint of it. Mention in this connection can be made of the Nitisara of Kamandaka which specifically refers to Visnugupta. Vamana, the author of the Kavyalankarasutra is also acquainted with this work. The Nitivakyamrta of Somadevasuri is another work which carries on it the influence of the Arthasastra. Somadevasuri was a Jain writer. He therefore has a different view on the principle of administration than the Arthasastra. Hemacandra (1088-1172) is also not favourably inclined about some of the principles of Arthasastra as can be seen from his work the Laghu-arhanniti. A work on Polity that needs special notice is the Sukranitisara ascribed to Sukracarya. It has 2200 stanzas. It could be that it is a shorter version of some other work. Interestingly; there is mention in it of gun powder. Among other works on Polity could be mentioned the Vyaktikalpataru of Bhoja and the Nitiratnakara of Candesvara.