The Arthaśāstra

The Arthaśāstra (“Science of Artha” — wealth, material well-being, political power) is the classical Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, economics and military strategy, attributed to Kauṭilya (Cāṇakya), the minister of Candragupta Maurya. Modern scholarship (Thomas Trautmann, Patrick Olivelle) regards it as a composite work, with a core from the late centuries BCE and a final redaction in the first centuries CE. Lost for centuries — known only through quotations — it was rediscovered in 1905, when R. Shamasastry found a palm-leaf manuscript in the Oriental Research Institute in Mysore, and published in 1909. Its fifteen books are the most detailed surviving description of government from the ancient world, and present a political philosophy of hard-headed realism combined with a concern for the welfare of the people.

Contents

The king

Book 1 describes the education of the king: he must master philosophy, the Vedas, economics and government; control his senses — “the six enemies: lust, anger, greed, conceit, arrogance and foolhardiness”; keep a strict daily timetable, dividing day and night into eighths for hearing reports, receiving petitions, consulting ministers, inspecting troops, sleeping, and so on. “When the king is energetic, his subjects will be equally energetic.” “In the happiness of his subjects lies his happiness; in their welfare, his welfare” (1.19.34).

It discusses the selection and testing of ministers — by secret tests (upadhā) of their loyalty to dharma, wealth, pleasure and fear — and the use of spies: “fraudulent disciples”, “recluses”, “householders”, “merchants”, “ascetics”, “classmates”, “fire-brands” (bravos), “poisoners” and “mendicant women”, who infiltrate every level of society and foreign courts.

Administration and economy

Book 2 describes the state apparatus in astonishing detail: superintendents of the treasury, mines, metals, mint, salt, gold, warehouses, commerce, forest produce, armoury, weights and measures, tolls, weaving, agriculture, liquor, slaughterhouses, courtesans, shipping, cattle, horses, elephants, chariots, infantry, passports and cities. The state is an active economic agent — it owns mines and forests, runs workshops, builds irrigation, settles new lands, regulates markets and prices, and protects consumers against fraud. Taxation should be like gathering fruit from a garden, taking only the ripe.

Law

Books 3 and 4 treat civil and criminal law: marriage, inheritance, property, debts, contracts, labour, sales, violence, defamation, theft, and the “removal of thorns” — the suppression of criminals, corrupt officials and fraudulent artisans. Torture is permitted in interrogation, with limits (not for pregnant women, the sick, or minor offences).

Foreign policy and war

Books 6 to 14 treat foreign policy and war. The maṇḍala theory places the “would-be conqueror” (vijigīṣu) at the centre of concentric circles of states: his immediate neighbours are natural enemies, their neighbours natural friends, then the enemy’s friends, and so on, with a “middle king” and a “neutral king” beyond. The six measures (ṣāḍguṇya) are: peace (sandhi), war (vigraha), staying quiet (āsana), marching (yāna), seeking shelter (saṃśraya) and the dual policy of peace with one and war with another (dvaidhībhāva). The four means (upāyas) are conciliation, gifts, dissension and force, in that order of preference. The text describes open warfare, “silent war” (subversion, assassination) and “treacherous war”, fortification, siege, and even secret recipes for poisons and magical tricks to deceive enemies.

Political philosophy

The Arthaśāstra’s view of politics rests on a few principles: that artha (material well-being and power) is the foundation of the other aims of life; that the state exists to secure the yogakṣema (security and prosperity) of its people; that without the coercive power of daṇḍa, society reverts to the law of the fishes; and that the king, though bound by dharma, must use whatever means are effective to protect the state. It treats politics as a science with its own rules, distinct from religion and ethics — which is why it has been compared with [[works/the-prince|Machiavelli’s Prince]] and with modern realism in international relations.

In conversation

The two lines to know are the maṇḍala principle — your neighbour’s neighbour is your natural friend — and the welfare principle — the king’s happiness lies in his subjects’ happiness.