Kautilya and his Arthashastra

 

The Arthashastra is an ancient text which is believed to have been written by Kautilya, who served as emperor Chandragupta Maurya’s prime minister. Although details of Kautilya’s birth could not be ascertained, some scholars place it circa 350 B. C. E. in Pataliputra. Furthermore, some scholars agree with 300 B. C. E. as a possible period when the original parts of the Arthashastra were written, though there are theories stating that some contents of the text had been added much later (We shall discuss this in detail in another post in the future).

Legend has it that Kautilya had to leave his university job and come to Pataliputra in search of a role as a royal advisor, due to political turmoil in India in the aftermath of Greek invasion. However, Kautilya was so outraged when he was slandered by King Dhana Nanda, that he took a vow to dethrone the Nanda dynasty. Afterwards, Kautilya came across an impressive teenager named Chandragupta, whom Kautilya took under his apprenticeship and gave training to take charge as a future king. Kautilya successfully used espionage tactics to disrupt the local power politics, which culminated in the conquer of Pataliputra in 321 B.C.E. and Chandragupta’s installation as the king of the Mauryan dynasty. 

Realising that earlier works on statecraft were not up to his expectations, Kautilya composed the Arthashastra based on his experience as a royal advisor. Evidence strongly suggests that the administration of Chandragupta’s kingdom has put into practice much of Kautilya’s views reflected in the Arthashastra. Kautilya (who had an excellent working relationship with Chandragupta) is believed to have had a fall out with Chandragupta’s successor Bindusara, which caused Kautilya to renounce his personal properties and retire into private life. 

Stay tuned. More to come...

References:

1. Sil, N. P. (2017). The analect and the Arthashastra: Kongzi of Zhou China and Kauṭilya of Maurya India compared. SAGE Open. 1-12.

2. Jindal, N. (2019). Relevance of Kautilya in contemporary international system. International Journal of Historical Insight and Research (IJHIR), 5(2).

3. Gray, S. (2013). Re-examining Kautilya and Machiavelli: Flexibility and the Problem of Legitimacy in Brahmanical and Secular Realism. Political Theory, 42(6). 635-657.

4. Mishra, S. (2017). Rajadharma, legitimacy and sovereignty in the Arthashastra. In M. Liebig & S. Mishra (Ed.). The Arthashastra in a transcultural perspective: Comparing Kautilya with Sun-Zi, Nizam al-Mulk, Barani and Machiavelli. New Delhi: Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

5. Prathibha, M. S. (2017). Kautilya and Sun-Zi: Comparative philosophical analysis. In M. Liebig & S. Mishra (Ed.). The Arthashastra in a transcultural perspective: Comparing Kautilya with Sun-Zi, Nizam al-Mulk, Barani and Machiavelli. New Delhi: Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

6. Jennings, Z. (2021). Chandragupta Maurya, Kautilya and kingship in the Mauryan empire. Leiden University.

7. Prasad, S. B. (2017). Practical politics of Machiavelli and Kautilya. International Journal of Political Science (IJPS), 3(1), 30-34.