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{{Short description|Ancient Indian treatise}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{italics}}
{{Infobox religious text
| image =Rediscovered circa 16th century Arthashastra manuscript in Grantha script from the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) which was found in 1905 03.jpg
| image_size=
| alt =Rediscovered circa 16th century Arthashastra manuscript in Grantha script from the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) which was found in 1905 
| caption =Rediscovered circa 16th century Arthashastra manuscript in Grantha script from the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) which was found in 1905 
| religion = [[Hinduism]]
| verses =
| author = [[Kautilya]] 
| language = [[Sanskrit]]
| date     = 
| chapters =
| name=''Arthashastra''
| period= 3rd century BCE - 3rd century CE
| wikisource= Arthashastra  }}
{{Hindu scriptures and texts}}
{{Politics sidebar}}

The '''''Arthashastra''''' ({{lang-sa|अर्थशास्त्रम्}}, {{IAST3|Arthaśāstram}}) is an [[Ancient India]]n [[Sanskrit]] treatise on statecraft, [[Politics|political science]], [[economic policy]] and [[military strategy]].<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Roger Boesche|author=Roger Boesche|title=The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hdpuAAAAQBAJ |year=2002|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0739104019|page=7|quote=[...] is classically expressed in Indian literature in the Arthashastra of Kautilya}}<br />{{cite journal |last1=Siva Kumar |first1=N. |last2=Rao |first2=U. S. |date=April 1996 | title = Guidelines for value based management in Kautilya's Arthashastra | journal = Journal of Business Ethics | volume = 15 | issue = 4 | pages = 415–423 | doi = 10.1007/BF00380362 |s2cid=153463180 |quote=The paper develops value based management guidelines from the famous Indian treatise on management, Kautilya's Arthashastra.}}</ref>{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=1-5}}{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=24–25, 31}} [[Kautilya]], also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is traditionally credited as the author of the text.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=1, 34-35}}<ref name="ReferenceA">{{harvtxt|Mabbett|1964}}: "References to the work in other Sanskrit literature attribute it variously to {{IAST|Viṣṇugupta}}, {{IAST|Cāṇakya}} and {{IAST|Kauṭilya}}. The same individual is meant in each case. The ''[[Panchatantra|Pańcatantra]]'' explicitly identifies [[Chanakya]] with {{IAST|Viṣṇugupta}}."</ref> The latter was a scholar at [[Takshashila]], the teacher and guardian of [[Maurya Empire|Mauryan]] emperor [[Chandragupta Maurya]].{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=31-38}} Some scholars believe them to be the same person,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=32-33}} while a few have questioned this identification.<ref name="Mabbett 162–169">{{harvtxt|Mabbett|1964}}; <br/>{{harvtxt|Trautmann|1971|p=10}}: "while in his character as author of an ''arthaśāstra'' he is generally referred to by his ''[[gotra]]'' name, {{IAST|Kauṭilya}};"<br/>{{harvtxt|Trautmann|1971|p=67}}: "T. Burrow... has now shown that Cāṇakya is also a ''gotra'' name, which in conjunction with other evidence makes it clear that we are dealing with distinct persons, the minister Cāṇakya of legend and Kautilya the compiler of ''Arthaśāstra.''</ref><ref>{{harvtxt|Rao|Subrahmanyam|2013}}: "The confident initial assertion that the text’s author was 'the famous Brahman Kautilya, also named Vishnugupta, and known from other sources by the patronymic Chanakya', and that the text was written at the time of the foundation of the Maurya dynasty, has of course been considerably eroded over the course of the twentieth century."</ref> The text is likely the work of several authors over centuries.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=24–25, 31–33}} Composed, expanded and redacted between the 2nd century BCE and 3rd century CE,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=30-31}} the ''Arthashastra'' was influential until the 12th century, when it disappeared. It was rediscovered in 1905 by [[R. Shamasastry]], who published it in 1909.<ref name=Allen>{{cite book|last1=Allen|first1=Charles|author-link = Charles Allen (writer)|title=Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor|date=21 February 2012|publisher=Hachette UK|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K4vHjbUtf_4C|access-date=23 October 2015|isbn=9781408703885}}</ref> The first English translation, also by Shamasastry, was published in 1915.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boesche|2002|p=8}}</ref> After a dormant reception, primarily confined to the academic circles, the conversation around Arthashastra in 21st century has generated sudden global interest specially amongst global power-predictors, who are trying to decipher what a rising India would mean for the world, as it is anticipated to reflect the indigenous model of [[Shakti]] as defined by Kautilya Arthashastra. It has a unique approach to defining Power of the nation states.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mishra|first=Lieutenant Colonel Malay|date=March 2017|title=Unique Approach to Comprehensive National Power through the Lens of Kautilya's Arthashastra|url=https://usiofindia.org/publication/usi-journal/unique-approach-to-comprehensive-national-power-through-the-lens-of-kautilyas-arthashastra/|url-status=live|access-date=2022-12-20|website=United Service Institution of India}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Mishra|first=Lieutenant Colonel Malay|date=April 2016|title=Kautilya's Arthashastra: Restoring its Rightful Place in the Field of International Relations |url=https://idsa.in/jds/jds_10_2_2016_kautilya-s-arthashastra/|url-status=live|access-date=2022-12-20|website=Journal of Defence Studies}}</ref>

The Sanskrit title, ''Arthashastra'', can be translated as "political science" or "economic science" or simply "statecraft",<ref name="Boesche 2003" />{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=14, 330|ps=: "The title Arthaśāstra is found only in the [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]]s, in three verses 5.6.47, 7.10.38 and 7.18.42", (page 14) and "Prosperity and decline, stability and weakening, and vanquishing&nbsp;— knowing the ''science of politics [अर्थशास्त्र, arthaśāstra]'', he should employ all of these strategies." (page 330)}} as the word artha (अर्थ) is polysemous in Sanskrit;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary 1899 Advanced |url=https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/2020/web/webtc2/index.php |access-date=2022-04-11 |website=www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de}}</ref> the work has a broad scope.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rangarajan|first=L.N.|title=The Arthashastra (Introduction)|year=1987|publisher=Penguin Books|location=New Delhi|pages=1–2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3jbzZkoR36QC|access-date=2016-02-20|isbn=9788184750119}}</ref> It includes books on the nature of government, law, civil and criminal court systems, [[ethics]], [[economics]], markets and trade, the methods for screening ministers, diplomacy, theories on war, nature of peace, and the duties and obligations of a king.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=1-62, 179-221}}<ref>Sen, R.K. and Basu, R.L. 2006. ''Economics in Arthashastra''. New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications.</ref><ref>Thomas Trautmann (2012), Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0670085279}}, pages xxv-27</ref> The text incorporates [[Hindu philosophy]],<ref>{{cite book|author1=R. Chadwick|author2=S. Henson|author3=B. Moseley|title=Functional Foods|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_jvCAAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Springer Science|isbn=978-3-662-05115-3|page=39|quote=During the same period, an ancient Hindu text (the Arthashastra) included a recipe...}}<br />{{cite book|author=Arvind Sharma|title=Modern Hindu Thought: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aDXAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-567638-9|page=186 |quote=Arthasastra, the major surviving Hindu text on polity, attributed to Chanakya (also known as Kautilya)...}}<br />{{cite book|author=Stephen Peter Rosen|title=Societies and Military Power: India and Its Armies|url=https://archive.org/details/societiesmilitar00rose|url-access=registration|year=1996|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0801432101|page=[https://archive.org/details/societiesmilitar00rose/page/67 67] |quote=The most important single text in Hindu political philosophy is Kautilya's Arthasastra [...]}}</ref> includes ancient economic and cultural details on agriculture, mineralogy, mining and metals, animal husbandry, medicine, forests and wildlife.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=122-175}}

The ''Arthashastra'' explores issues of social [[welfare state|welfare]], the collective ethics that hold a society together, advising the king that in times and in areas devastated by famine, epidemic and such acts of nature, or by war, he should initiate [[public works|public projects]] such as creating irrigation waterways and building forts around major strategic holdings and towns and exempt taxes on those affected.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=101, 228-229, 286-287}} The text was influenced by Hindu texts such as the sections on kings, [[governance]] and legal procedures included in ''[[Manusmriti]]''.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=29, 52}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Olivelle |first1=Patrick |title=Manu and the Arthaśāstra, A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=June 2004 |volume=32 |issue=2/3 |pages=281–291 |doi=10.1023/B:INDI.0000021078.31452.8a |jstor=23497263|s2cid=170873274 }}</ref>

==History of the manuscripts==
[[File:Rediscovered circa 16th century Arthashastra manuscript in Grantha script from the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) which was found in 1905 05.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Rediscovered circa 16th century Arthashastra manuscript in Grantha script from the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) which was found in 1905]]
The text was considered lost by colonial era scholars, until a manuscript was discovered in 1905.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=1–2}} A copy of the Arthashastra in Sanskrit, written on palm leaves, was presented by a [[Tamil Brahmin]] from [[Tanjore]] to the newly opened [[Oriental Research Institute Mysore|Mysore Oriental Library]] headed by [[B. Lewis Rice|Benjamin Lewis Rice]].<ref name=Allen/> The text was identified by the librarian [[R. Shamasastry|Rudrapatna Shamasastry]] as the ''Arthashastra''. During 1905–1909, Shamasastry published English translations of the text in installments, in journals ''[[Indian Antiquary]]'' and ''Mysore Review''.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=1–2}}{{sfn|Trautmann|1971|p=1}}

During 1923–1924, [[Julius Jolly (Indologist)|Julius Jolly]] and [[:de:Richard Schmidt (Indologe)|Richard Schmidt]] published a new edition of the text, which was based on a [[Malayalam script]] manuscript in the [[Bavarian State Library]]. In the 1950s, fragmented sections of a north Indian version of ''Arthashastra'' were discovered in form of a [[Devanagari]] manuscript in a [[Jain]] library in [[Patan, Gujarat|Patan]], [[Gujarat]]. A new edition based on this manuscript was published by Muni Jina Vijay in 1959. In 1960, R. P. Kangle published a [[critical edition]] of the text, based on all the available manuscripts.{{sfn|Trautmann|1971|p=1}} Numerous translations and interpretations of the text have been published since then.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=1–2}}

The text written in Sanskrit of the 1st millennium BCE Sanskrit, which is coded, dense and capable of many interpretations, especially as English and Sanskrit are very different languages, both grammatically and syntactically.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=ix, xiii, xiv-xvii}} [[Patrick Olivelle]], whose translation was published in 2013 by [[Oxford University Press]], said it was the "most difficult translation project I have ever undertaken." Parts of the text are still opaque after a century of modern scholarship.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=ix, xiii, xiv-xvii}}

==Authorship, date of writing, and structure==
The authorship and date of writing are unknown, and there is evidence that the surviving manuscripts{{which?|date=February 2020}} are not original and have been modified in their history but were most likely completed in the available form between the 2nd century BCE and 3rd century CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|loc=Introduction}} 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.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=3–4}} 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.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=3–4}}

{{Quote box |width=24em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote='''Avoid War'''
<poem>
One can lose a war as easily as one can win.
War is inherently unpredictable.
War is also expensive. Avoid war.
Try ''[[Sāma, Dāna, Bheda, Danda|Upaya]]'' (four strategies).
Then ''[[Sadgunya]]'' (six forms of non-war pressure).
Understand the opponent and seek to outwit him.
When everything fails, resort to military force.
</poem>
|source =—''Arthashastra'' Books 2.10, 6-7, 10{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=49-51, 99-108, 277-294, 349-356, 373-382}}}}
A notable structure of the treatise is that while all chapters are primarily prose, each transitions into a poetic verse towards its end, as a marker, a style that is found in many ancient Hindu Sanskrit texts where the changing poetic meter or style of writing is used as a syntax code to silently signal that the chapter or section is ending.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=3–4}} All 150 chapters of the text also end with a [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]] stating the title of the book it belongs in, the topics contained in that book (like an index), the total number of titles in the book and the books in the text.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=3–4}} Finally, the ''Arthashastra'' text numbers it 180 topics consecutively, and does not restart from one when a new chapter or a new book starts.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=3–4}}

The division into 15, 150, and 180 of books, chapters and topics respectively was probably not accidental, states Olivelle, because ancient authors of major Hindu texts favor certain numbers, such as 18 [[Adi Parva|Parvas]] in the epic Mahabharata.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=4–5}} The largest book is the second, with 1,285 sentences, while the smallest is eleventh, with 56 sentences. The entire book has about 5,300 sentences on politics, governance, welfare, economics, protecting key officials and king, gathering intelligence about hostile states, forming strategic alliances, and conduct of war, exclusive of its table of contents and the last epilogue-style book.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=4–5}}

=== Authorship ===

Stylistic differences within some sections of the surviving manuscripts suggest that it likely includes the work of several authors over the centuries. There is no doubt, states Olivelle, that "revisions, errors, additions and perhaps even subtractions have occurred" in Arthashastra since its final redaction in 300 CE or earlier.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=24-25, 31}}

Three names for the text's author are used in various historical sources:

; Kauṭilya or Kauṭalya
: The text identifies its author by the name "Kauṭilya" or its variant "Kauṭalya": both spellings appear in manuscripts, commentaries, and references in other ancient texts; it is not certain which one of these is the original spelling of the author's name.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=31-32}} This person was probably the author of the original recension of ''Arthashastra'': this recension must have been based on works by earlier writers, as suggested by the Arthashastra's opening verse, which states that its author consulted the so-called "Arthashastras" to compose a new treatise.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=31}}
: [[Vishakhadatta]]'s ''[[Mudrarakshasa]]'' refers to Kauṭilya as ''kutila-mati'' ("crafty-minded"), which has led to suggestions that the word "Kauṭilya" is derived from ''kutila'', the Sanskrit word for "crafty". However, such a derivation is grammatically impossible, and Vishkhadatta's usage is simply a [[pun]].{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=32}} The word "Kauṭilya" or "Kauṭalya" appears to be the name of a [[gotra]] (lineage), and is used in this sense in the later literature and inscriptions.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=31-32}}

; Vishnugupta
: A verse at the end of the text identifies its author as "Vishnugupta" ({{IAST|Viṣṇugupta}}), stating that Vishnugupta himself composed both the text and its commentary, after noticing "many errors committed by commentators on treatises".{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=35}} R. P. Kangle theorized that Vishnugupta was the personal name of the author while Chanakya ({{IAST|Cāṇakya}}) was the name of his gotra. Others, such as [[Thomas Burrow]] and [[Patrick Olivelle]], point out that none of the earliest sources that refer to Chanakya mention the name "Vishnugupta". According to these scholars, "Vishnugupta" may have been the personal name of the author whose gotra name was "Kautilya": this person, however, was different from Chanakya. Historian K C Ojha theorizes that Vishnugupta was the redactor of the final recension of the text.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=35-36}}

; Chanakya
: The penultimate paragraph of the ''Arthashastra'' states that the treatise was authored by the person who rescued the country from the [[Nanda Empire|Nanda kings]], although it does not explicitly name this person.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=34, 36}} The [[Maurya Empire|Maurya]] prime minister [[Chanakya]] played a pivotal role in the overthrow of the Nanda dynasty. Several later texts identify Chanakya with Kautilya or Vishnugupta: Among the earliest sources, ''Mudrarakshasa'' is the only one that uses all three names - Kauṭilya, Vishnugupta, and Chanakya - to refer to the same person. Other early sources use the name Chanakya (e.g. ''[[Panchatantra]]''), Vishnugupta (e.g. Kamandaka's ''[[Nitisara]]''), both Chanakya and Vishnugupta ([[Daṇḍin|Dandin]]'s ''[[Dashakumaracharita]]''), or Kautilya (e.g. [[Banabhatta|Bana]]'s ''[[Kadambari]]'').{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=32}} The [[Puranas]] (''[[Vishnu Purana|Vishnu]]'', ''[[Vayu Purana|Vayu]]'', and ''[[Matsya Purana|Matsya]]'') are the only among the ancient texts that use the name "Kautilya" (instead of the more common "Chanakya") to describe the Maurya prime minister.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=32}}
: Scholars such as R. P. Kangle theorize that the text was authored by the Maurya prime minister Chanakya.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=33}} Others, such as Olivelle and [[Thomas Trautmann]], argue that this verse is a later addition, and that the identification of Chanakya and Kautilya is a relatively later development that occurred during the [[Gupta Empire|Gupta period]]. Trautmann points out that none of the earlier sources that refer to Chanakya mention his authorship of the ''Arthashastra''.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=33}} Olivelle proposes that in an attempt to present the Guptas as the legitimate successors of the Mauryas, the author of political treatise followed by the Guptas was identified with the Maurya prime minister.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=33-35}}

=== Chronology ===
Olivelle states that the oldest layer of text, the "sources of the Kauṭilya", dates from the period 150 BCE–50 CE. The next phase of the work's evolution, the "Kauṭilya Recension", can be dated to the period 50–125 CE. Finally, the "Śāstric Redaction" (i.e., the text as we have it today) is dated period 175–300 CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|loc=Introduction}}

The ''Arthasastra'' is mentioned and dozens of its verses have been found on fragments of manuscript treatises buried in ancient Buddhist monasteries of northwest China, Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. This includes the [[Spitzer Manuscript]] (c. 200 CE) discovered near [[Kizil Caves|Kizil]] in China and the birch bark scrolls now a part of the Bajaur Collection (1st to 2nd century CE) discovered in the ruins of a [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] Buddhist site in 1999, state [[Harry Falk (Indologist)|Harry Falk]] and Ingo Strauch.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Falk | first1=Harry | last2=Strauch | first2=Ingo | editor= Paul Harrison and Jens-Uwe Hartmann| title=From Birch Bark to Digital Data: Recent Advances in Buddhist Manuscript Research | chapter=The Bajaur and Split Collections of Kharoṣṭhī Manuscripts within the Context of Buddhist Gāndhārī Literature | year=2014 | publisher=Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften | isbn=978-3-7001-7710-4 | doi=10.2307/j.ctt1vw0q4q.7 | pages=71–72, context: 51–78| url=https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_CF8CA1724220 }}</ref>

=== Geography ===

The author of ''Arthashastra'' uses the term ''gramakuta'' to describe a village official or chief, which, according to [[Thomas Burrow]], suggests that he was a native of the region that encompasses present-day [[Gujarat]] and northern Maharashtra. Other evidences also support this theory: the text mentions that the shadow of a sundial disappears at noon during the month of [[Ashadha]] (June–July), and that the day and night are equal during the months of [[Chaitra]] (March–April) and [[Ashvayuja]] (September–October). This is possible only in the areas lying along the [[Tropic of Cancer]], which passes through central India, from [[Gujarat]] in the west to [[Bengal]] in the east.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=37}}

The author of the text appears to be most familiar with the historical regions of [[Avanti (Ancient India)|Avanti]] and [[Ashmaka]], which included parts of present-day Gujarat and Maharashtra. He provides precise annual rainfall figures for these historical regions in the text.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=37}} Plus, he shows familiarity with sea-trade, which can be explained by the existence of ancient sea ports such as [[Shurparaka|Sopara]] in the Gujarat-Maharashtra region.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=37-38}} Lastly, the gotra name Kauṭilya is still found in Maharashtra.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=37}}

==Translation of the title==
Different scholars have translated the word "arthashastra" in different ways.

* R.P. Kangle: "Artha is the sustenance or livelihood of men, and {{IAST|Arthaśāstra}} is the science of the means to Artha"<ref>RP Kangle (1969, Reprinted in 2010), Arthaśāstra, Part 3, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120800410}}, pages 1-2</ref> "science of politics";<ref>{{cite journal | first = Roger | last = Boesche |date=January 2003 | title = Kautilya's ''Arthaśāstra'' on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India | journal = The Journal of Military History | volume = 67 | issue = 1 | pages = 9–37 | doi = 10.1353/jmh.2003.0006 | issn = 0899-3718 | doi-access = free }}</ref>
* [[A.L. Basham]]: a "treatise on polity"<ref name="Boesche 2003">Boesche 2003</ref>
* [[D.D. Kosambi]]: "science of material gain"<ref name="Boesche 2003"/>
* G.P. Singh: "science of polity"<ref name="Boesche 2003"/>
* [[Roger Boesche]]: "science of [[political economy]]"<ref name="Boesche 2003"/>
* [[Patrick Olivelle]]: "science of politics"{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=14, 330|ps=: "The title Arthaśāstra is found only in the [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]]s, in three verses 5.6.47, 7.10.38 and 7.18.42", (page 14) and "Prosperity and decline, stability and weakening, and vanquishing&nbsp;— knowing the ''science of politics [अर्थशास्त्र, arthaśāstra]'', he should employ all of these strategies." (page 330)}}

[[Artha]] (prosperity, wealth, purpose, meaning, economic security) is one of the four aims of human life in Hinduism ([[Puruṣārtha]]),<ref>[[Arvind Sharma]] (1999), The Puruṣārthas: An Axiological Exploration of Hinduism, The Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 223-256</ref> the others being [[dharma]] (laws, duties, rights, virtues, right way of living),<ref>Steven Rosen (2006), Essential Hinduism, Praeger, {{ISBN|0-275-99006-0}}, page 34-45</ref> [[kama]] (pleasure, emotions, sex)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Macy |first1=Joanna |year=1975 |title=The Dialectics of Desire |journal=Numen |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=145–60 |publisher=BRILL |jstor=3269765|doi=10.1163/156852775X00095 }}</ref> and [[moksha]] (spiritual liberation).<ref>John Bowker (2003), The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0192139658}}, pages 650-651</ref> [[Shastra|{{IAST|Śāstra}}]] is the Sanskrit word for "rules" or "science".

==Organisation==
''Arthashastra'' is divided into 15 book titles, 150 chapters and 180 topics, as follows:{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=vii–xxvii}}
# On the Subject of Training, 21 chapters, Topics 1-18
# On the Activities of Superintendents, 36 chapters, Topics 19-56 (largest book)
# On Justices, 20 chapters, Topics 57-75
# Eradication of Thorns, 13 chapters, Topics 76-88
# On Secret Conduct, 6 chapters, Topics 89-95
# Basis of the Circle, 2 chapters, Topics 96-97
# On the Sixfold Strategy, 18 chapters, Topics 98-126
# On the Subject of Calamities, 5 chapters, Topics 127-134
# Activity of a King preparing to March into Battle, 7 chapters, Topics 135-146
# On War, 6 chapters, Topics 147-159
# Conduct toward Confederacies, 1 chapter, Topics 160-161
# On the Weaker King, 5 chapters, Topics 162-170
# Means of Capturing a Fort, 5 chapters, Topics 171-176
# On Esoteric Practices, 4 chapters, Topics 177-179
# Organization of a Scientific Treatise, 1 chapter, Topic 180

==Contents==

===The need for law, economics and government===
The ancient Sanskrit text opens, in chapter 2 of Book 1 (the first chapter is table of contents), by acknowledging that there are a number of extant schools with different theories on proper and necessary number of fields of knowledge, and asserts they all agree that the science of government is one of those fields.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=66-69}} It lists the school of ''Brihaspati'', the school of ''Usanas'', the school of ''Manu'' and itself as the school of ''Kautilya'' as examples.<ref name=shamasastri8>[https://archive.org/stream/Arthasastra_English_Translation/Arthashastra_of_Chanakya_-_English#page/n7/mode/2up Arthashastra] R Shamasastry (Translator), pages 8-9</ref><ref name=arthasasb1c2/>

{{Quote box |width=27em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote=
<poem>
सुखस्य मूलं धर्मः । धर्मस्य मूलं अर्थः । अर्थस्य मूलं राज्यं । राज्यस्य मूलं इन्द्रिय जयः । इन्द्रियाजयस्य मूलं विनयः । विनयस्य मूलं वृद्धोपसेवा॥

The root of happiness is [[Dharma]] (ethics, righteousness), the root of ''Dharma'' is [[Artha]] (economy, polity), the root of ''Artha'' is right governance, the root of right governance is victorious inner-restraint, the root of victorious inner-restraint is humility, the root of humility is serving the aged.
</poem>
|source =— Kautilya, ''Chanakya Sutra 1-6''<ref>JS Rajput (2012), Seven Social Sins: The Contemporary Relevance, Allied, {{ISBN|978-8184247985}}, pages 28-29</ref>}}
The school of ''Usanas'' asserts, states the text, that there is only one necessary knowledge, the science of government because no other science can start or survive without it.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=66-69}}<ref name=shamasastri8/> The school of ''Brihaspati'' asserts, according to Arthashastra, that there are only two fields of knowledge, the science of government and the science of economics (''Varta''{{refn|group=note|Olivelle transliterates this word as ''Vārttā'', translates it as "roughly economics", and notes that Kautilya placed the knowledge of economics at the heart of king's education; See: Olivelle{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=43}}}} of agriculture, cattle and trade) because all other sciences are intellectual and mere flowering of the temporal life of man.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=66-69}}<ref name=arthasasb1c2/> The school of ''Manu'' asserts, states Arthashastra, that there are three fields of knowledge, the [[Vedas]], the science of government and the science of economics (''Varta'' of agriculture, cattle and trade) because these three support each other, and all other sciences are special branch of the Vedas.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=66-69}}<ref name=arthasasb1c2/>

The Arthashastra then posits its own theory that there are four necessary fields of knowledge, the [[Vedas]], the ''Anvikshaki'' (science of reasoning),{{refn|group=note|Kangle transliterates this word as ''Anviksiki '', and states that this term may be better conceptualized as science of reasoning rather than full philosophy, in ancient Indian traditions; See: Kangle's Part III{{sfn|Kangle|1969|pp=99-100}}}} the science of government and the science of economics (''Varta'' of agriculture, cattle and trade). It is from these four that all other knowledge, wealth and human prosperity is derived.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=66-69}}<ref name=arthasasb1c2/> The Kautilya text thereafter asserts that it is the Vedas that discuss what is [[Dharma]] (right, moral, ethical) and what is [[Adharma]] (wrong, immoral, unethical), it is the ''Varta'' that explain what creates wealth and what destroys wealth, it is the science of government that illuminates what is ''Nyaya'' (justice, expedient, proper) and ''Anyaya'' (unjust, inexpedient, improper), and that it is ''Anvishaki'' (philosophy){{sfn|Kangle|1969|p=130}} that is the light of these sciences, as well as the source of all knowledge, the guide to virtues, and the means to all kinds of acts.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=66-69}}<ref name=arthasasb1c2>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 1, Kautilya, pages 3-5</ref> He says of government in general:

{{quote|Without government, rises disorder as in the ''Matsya nyayamud bhavayati'' (proverb on law of fishes). In the absence of governance, the strong will swallow the weak. In the presence of governance, the weak resists the strong.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=68-69}}<ref>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 1, Kautilya, page 5</ref>}}

===Raja (king)===
The best king is the ''Raja-[[rishi]]'', the sage king.{{sfn|Rangarajan|1992|pp=121-122}}<ref name=arthasasb1c5/>

The ''Raja-rishi'' has self-control and does not fall for the temptations of the senses, he learns continuously and cultivates his thoughts, he avoids false and flattering advisors and instead associates with the true and accomplished elders, he is genuinely promoting the security and welfare of his people, he enriches and empowers his people,  he lives a simple life and avoids harmful people or activities, he keeps away from another's wife nor craves for other people's property.{{sfn|Rangarajan|1992|pp=121-122}}{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=70-72}}<ref name=arthasasb1c5/> The greatest enemies of a king are not others, but are these six: lust, anger, greed, conceit, arrogance and foolhardiness.{{sfn|Rangarajan|1992|pp=121-122}}{{sfn|Kangle|1969|p=130}} A just king gains the loyalty of his people not because he is king, but because he is just.{{sfn|Rangarajan|1992|pp=121-122}}<ref name=arthasasb1c5>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 1, Kautilya, pages 5-6</ref>

===Officials, advisors and checks on government===
Book 1 and Book 2 of the text discusses how the crown prince should be trained and how the king himself should continue learning, selecting his key ''Mantri'' (ministers), officials, administration, staffing of the court personnel, magistrates and judges.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=xx, xxii, 69-221}}

Topic 2 of the Arthashastra, or chapter 5 of Book 1, is dedicated to the continuous training and development of the king, where the text advises that he maintain a counsel of elders, from each field of various sciences, whose accomplishments he knows and respects.<ref name=arthasasb1c5/>{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=69-70}} Topic 4 of the text describes the process of selecting the ministers and key officials, which it states must be based on king's personal knowledge of their honesty and capacity.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=72-74}} Kautilya first lists various different opinions among extant scholars on how key government officials should be selected, with ''Bharadvaja'' suggesting honesty and knowledge be the screen for selection, ''Kaunapadanta'' suggesting that heredity be favored, ''Visalaksha'' suggesting that king should hire those whose weaknesses he can exploit, ''Parasara'' cautioning against hiring vulnerable people because they will try to find king's vulnerability to exploit him instead, and yet another who insists that experience and not theoretical qualification be primary selection criterion.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=72-74}}

Kautilya, after describing the conflicting views on how to select officials, asserts that a king should select his ''Amatyah'' (ministers and high officials) based on the capacity to perform that they have shown in their past work, the character and their values that is accordance with the role.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=72-75}} The ''Amatyah'', states Arthashastra, must be those with following ''Amatya-sampat'': well trained, with foresight, with strong memory, bold, well spoken, enthusiastic, excellence in their field of expertise, learned in theoretical and practical knowledge, pure of character, of good health, kind and philanthropic, free from procrastination, free from ficklemindedness, free from hate, free from enmity, free from anger, and dedicated to [[dharma]].{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=74-75}}<ref>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 1, Kautilya, pages 7-8</ref> Those who lack one or a few of these characteristics must be considered for middle or lower positions in the administration, working under the supervision of more senior officials.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=74-75}} The text describes tests to screen for the various ''Amatya-sampat''.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=74-75}}

The Arthashastra, in Topic 6, describes checks and continuous measurement, in secret, of the integrity and lack of integrity of all ministers and high officials in the kingdom.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=75-76}} Those officials who lack integrity must be arrested. Those who are unrighteous, should not work in civil and criminal courts. Those who lack integrity in financial matters or fall for the lure of money must not be in revenue collection or treasury, states the text, and those who lack integrity in sexual relationships must not be appointed to ''Vihara'' services (pleasure grounds).{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=72-76}} The highest level ministers must have been tested and have successfully demonstrated integrity in all situations and all types of allurements.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=72-76}}<ref>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 1, Kautilya, pages 5-7</ref>

Chapter 9 of Book 1 suggests that the king maintain a council and a ''Purohit'' (chaplain, spiritual guide) for his personal counsel. The ''Purohit'', claims the text, must be one who is well educated in the [[Vedas]] and its six ''Angas''.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=74-75}}

===Causes of impoverishment, lack of motivation and disaffection among people===
[[File:Chanakya artistic depiction.jpg|thumb|140px|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.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=290-291}} Wherever officials or people initiate unprecedented violence in acts or words, wherever there is unrighteous acts of violence, disaffection grows.<ref name=arthasasb7/> When the king rejects the [[Dharma]], 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.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=290-291}}<ref name=arthasasb7>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 7, Kautilya, pages 146-148</ref>

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.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=290-291}} When officials engage in thievery, instead of providing protection against robbers, the people are impoverished, they lose respect and become disaffected.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=290-291}}<ref name=arthasasb7/>

A state, asserts ''Arthashastra'' text in verses 7.5.24 - 7.5.25, where courageous activity is denigrated, quality of accomplishments are disparaged, pioneers are harmed, honorable men are dishonored, where deserving people are not rewarded but instead favoritism and falsehood is, that is where people lack motivation, are distressed, become upset and disloyal.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=290-291}}<ref name=arthasasb7/>

In verse 7.5.33, the ancient text remarks that general impoverishment relating to food and survival money destroys everything, while other types of impoverishment can be addressed with grants of grain and money.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=290-291}}<ref name=arthasasb7/>

===Civil, criminal law and court system===
{{Quote box |width=27em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote='''Crime and punishment'''
<poem>
'''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).
</poem>
|source =— Arthashastra 3.1<ref>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 3, Kautilya, page 80; <br />Archive 2: [http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/5_artha/kautil_u.htm KAZ03.1.41 - KAZ03.1.43 Transliterated Arthashastra] Muneo Tokunaga (1992), Kyoto University, Archived at University of Goettingen, Germany</ref>{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=181-182}}}}

Book 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.<ref name= trautmann136>Thomas Trautmann (2012), Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0670085279}}, pages 136-137, for context see 134-139</ref> 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.<ref name= trautmann136/><ref name=arthasasb3b4/> This system, as Trautmann points out, is similar to European system of criminal law, rather than other historic legal system, because in the European (and Arthashastra) system it is the state that initiates judicial process in cases that fall under criminal statutes, while in the latter systems the aggrieved party initiates a claim in the case of murder, rape, bodily injury among others.<ref name= trautmann136/>

The ancient text stipulates that the courts have a panel of three ''pradeshtri'' (magistrates) for handling criminal cases, and this panel is different, separate and independent of the panel of judges of civil court system it specifies for a Hindu kingdom.<ref name= trautmann136/><ref name=arthasasb3b4/> The text lays out that just punishment is one that is in proportion to the crime in many sections starting with chapter 4 of Book 1,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=112-117}}<ref>Thomas Trautmann (2012), Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0670085279}}, page xx</ref> and repeatedly uses this principle in specifying punishments, for example in Topic 79, that is chapter 2 of Book 4.<ref name=arthasansk111>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 4, Kautilya, pages 110-111</ref> Economic crimes such as conspiracy by a group of traders or artisans is to be, states the Arthashastra, punished with much larger and punitive collective fine than those individually, as conspiracy causes systematic damage to the well-being of the people.<ref name= trautmann136/><ref name=arthasasb3b4>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 3 and 4, Kautilya, pages 79-126</ref>

===Marriage laws===
The text discusses marriage and consent laws in Books 3 and 4. It asserts, in chapter 4.2, that a girl may marry any man she wishes,{{refn|group=note|The girl, notes Olivelle (2013), may marry a man of equal status or any status (no mention of caste, the original Sanskrit text does not use the word ''Varna'' or any other related to caste). See: Olivelle{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=248}}}}{{refn|group=note|Rangarajan (1992), however, translates the verse to "same varna or another varna". See: Rangarajan{{sfn|Rangarajan|1992|pp=49, 364}}}} three years after her first menstruation, provided that she does not take her parents' property or ornaments received by her before the marriage. However, if she marries a man her father arranges or approves of, she has the right to take the ornaments with her.<ref name=arthasansk111/>{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=248}}

In chapter 3.4, the text gives the right to a woman that she may remarry anyone if she wants to, if she has been abandoned by the man she was betrothed to, if she does not hear back from him for three menstrual periods, or if she does hear back and has waited for seven menses.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=189}}<ref>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 3, Kautilya, pages 84-85</ref>

The chapter 2 of Book 3 of Arthashastra legally recognizes eight types of marriage. The bride is given the maximum property inheritance rights when the parents select the groom and the girl consents to the selection (Brahma marriage), and minimal if bride and groom marry secretly as lovers (Gandharva marriage) without the approval of her father and her mother.<ref name=arthasansk81>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 3, Kautilya, pages 81-82</ref> However, in cases of Gandharva marriage (love), she is given more rights than she has in Brahma marriage (arranged), if the husband uses the property she owns or has created, with husband required to repay her with interest when she demands.<ref name=arthasansk81/>{{sfn|Rangarajan|1992|p=366}}

===Wildlife and forests===
Arthashastra states that forests be protected and recommends that the state treasury be used to feed animals such as horses and elephants that are too old for work, sick or injured.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=18-19}} However, Kautilya also recommends that wildlife that is damaging crops should be restrained with state resources. In Topic 19, chapter 2, the text suggests:

{{poemquote|The king should grant exemption [from taxes]
  to a region devastated by an enemy king or tribe,
  to a region beleaguered by sickness or famine.
He should safeguard agriculture
  when it is stressed by the hardships of fines, forced labor, taxes, and animal herds
  when they are harassed by thieves, vicious animals, poison, crocodiles or sickness
He should keep trade routes [roads] clear
  when they are oppressed by anyone, including his officers, robbers or frontier commanders
  when they are worn out by farm animals
The king should protect produce, forests, elephants forests, reservoirs and mines
   established in the past and also set up new ones.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=101}}}}

In topic 35, the text recommends that the "Superintendent of Forest Produce" appointed by the state for each forest zone be responsible for maintaining the health of the forest, protecting forests to assist wildlife such as elephants (''hastivana''), but also producing forest products to satisfy economic needs, products such as Teak, Palmyra, Mimosa, Sissu, Kauki, Sirisha, Catechu, Latifolia, Arjuna, Tilaka, Tinisa, Sal, Robesta, Pinus, Somavalka, Dhava, Birch, bamboo, hemp, Balbaja (used for ropes), Munja, fodder, firewood, bulbous roots and fruits for medicine, flowers.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=140-142, 44-45}} The ''Arthashastra'' also reveals that the Mauryas designated specific forests to protect supplies of timber, as well as lions and tigers, for skins.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

===Mines, factories and superintendents===
The Arthashastra dedicates Topics 30 through 47 discussing the role of government in setting up mines and factories,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=127-130}} gold and precious stone workshops,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=122-126, 130-135}} commodities,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=139-140}} forest produce,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=140-141}} armory,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=142-143}} standards for balances and weight measures,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=143-147}} standards for length and time measures,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=143-147}} customs,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=147-151}} agriculture,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=152-156}} liquor,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=152-156}} abattoirs and courtesans,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=157-159}} shipping,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=160-162}} domesticated animals such as cattle, horses and elephants along with animal welfare when they are injured or too old,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=162-170}} pasture land,{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=172}} military preparedness{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=171-175}} and intelligence gathering operations of the state.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=173-175, 78-90}}

===On spying, propaganda and information===
{{Quote box |width=26em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote='''[[Femme fatale]] as a secret agent'''
<poem>
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.
</poem>
|source =— Arthashastra 11.1<ref name=boeschejmh9/><ref>Sanskrit Original: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/artha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs कौिटलीय अर्थशास्त्र, Arthashastra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209052501/http://sanskritdocuments.org/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fsanskritdocuments.org%2Fdoc_z_misc_sociology_astrology%2Fartha.pdf#zoom=auto&pagemode=thumbs |date=9 February 2017 }} Book 11, Kautilya, pages 206-208</ref>}}
The 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.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=42-47, 78-80, 98, 112-117, 231-234, 261-263, 407-414, 476-483}}{{refn|group=note|According to Shoham and Liebig, this was a  'textbook of Statecraft and Political Economy' that provides a detailed account of intelligence collection, processing, consumption, and covert operations, as indispensable means for maintaining and expanding the security and power of the state.<ref>Dany Shoham and Michael Liebig. "The intelligence dimension of Kautilyan statecraft and its implications for the present." ''Journal of Intelligence History'' 15.2 (2016): 119-138.</ref>}}

The roles and guises recommended for ''Vyanjana'' (appearance) agents by the Arthashastra include ascetics, forest hermits, mendicants, cooks, merchants, doctors, astrologers, householders, entertainers, dancers, female agents and others.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=xv-xvi, 42-43, 78-82, 98, 260}} It suggests that members from these professions should be sought to serve for the secret service.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=42-43}} A prudent state, states the text, must expect that its enemies seek information and are spying inside its territory and spreading propaganda, and therefore it must train and reward double agents to gain identity about such hostile intelligence operations.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=78-83}}

The goals of the secret service, in Arthashastra, was to test the integrity of government officials, spy on cartels and population for conspiracy, to monitor hostile kingdoms suspected of preparing for war or in war against the state, to check spying and propaganda wars by hostile states, to destabilize enemy states, to get rid of troublesome powerful people who could not be challenged openly.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=42–47, 78–83, 260–261}}<ref name=boeschejmh9>Roger Boesche (2003), Kautilya's Arthaśāstra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India, The Journal of Military History, Volume 67, Number 1, pages 9-37</ref> The spy operations and its targets, states verse 5.2.69 of Arthashastra, should be pursued "with respect to traitors and unrighteous people, not with respect to others".{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=261}}

===On war and peace===
The Arthashastra dedicates Book 7 and 10 to war, and considers numerous scenarios and reasons for war. It classifies war into three broad types&nbsp;– open war, covert war and silent war.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=294}} It then dedicates chapters to defining each type of war, how to engage in these wars and how to detect that one is a target of covert or silent types of war.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=294-297}} The text cautions that the king should know the progress he expects to make, when considering the choice between waging war and pursuing peace.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=277-278}} The text asserts:

{{quote|When the degree of progress is the same in pursuing peace and waging war, peace is to be preferred. For, in war, there are disadvantages such as losses, expenses and absence from home.{{sfn|Rangarajan|1992|p=530}}}}

Kautilya, in the Arthashastra, suggests that the state must always be adequately fortified, its armed forces prepared and resourced to defend itself against acts of war. Kautilya favors peace over war, because he asserts that in most situations, peace is more conducive to creation of wealth, prosperity and security of the people.<ref name=brekke128/>{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=273-274}} Arthashastra defines the value of peace and the term peace, states Brekke, as "effort to achieve the results of work undertaken is industry, and absence of disturbance to the enjoyment of the results achieved from work is peace".<ref name=brekke128>Torkel Brekke (2009), The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations: A Comparative Perspective, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415544375}}, page 128</ref>

All means to win a war are appropriate in the Arthashastra, including assassination of enemy leaders, sowing discord in its leadership, engagement of covert men and women in the pursuit of military objectives and as weapons of war, deployment of accepted superstitions and propaganda to bolster one's own troops or to demoralize enemy soldiers, as well as open hostilities by deploying kingdom's armed forces.<ref name=boeschejmh9/> After success in a war by the victorious just and noble state, the text argues for humane treatment of conquered soldiers and subjects.<ref name=boeschejmh9/>

The Arthashastra theories are similar with some and in contrast to other alternative theories on war and peace in the ancient Indian tradition. For example, states Brekke, the legends in Hindu epics preach heroism qua heroism which is in contrast to Kautilya suggestion of prudence and never forgetting the [[Puruṣārtha|four Hindu goals of human life]], while Kamandaki's ''Nitisara'', which is similar to Kautilya's ''Arthashastra'', is among other Hindu classics on statecraft and foreign policy that suggest prudence, engagement and diplomacy, peace is preferable and must be sought, and yet prepared to excel and win war if one is forced to.<ref>Torkel Brekke (2009), The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations: A Comparative Perspective, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415544375}}, pages 121-138</ref>

=== Foreign Policy ===
{{Quote box
| width = 24em
| bgcolor = #FFE0BB
| align = right
| salign = right
| quote = '''Behaviour of a Weak King'''
<poem>
One should neither submit spinelessly nor sacrifice oneself in foolhardy valour. It is better to adopt such policies as would enable one to survive and live to fight another day.
</poem>
| source = —Arthashastra 7.15.13-20, 12.1.1-9
}}
In the Arthashastra, Books 7, 11 and 12 have given a comprehensive analysis on all aspects of the relations between states. In the first chapter of Book 6, the theoretical basis of foreign policy are described. This includes six-fold foreign policy and the Mandala Theory of foreign policy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kauṭalya |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/30678203 |title=The Arthashastra |date=1992 |publisher=Penguin Books India |others=L. N. Rangarajan |isbn=0-14-044603-6 |location=New Delhi |pages=506–515 |oclc=30678203}}</ref>

===On regulations and taxes===
The Arthashastra discusses a mixed economy, where private enterprise and state enterprise frequently competed side by side, in agriculture, animal husbandry, forest produce, mining, manufacturing and trade.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=43-44}} However, royal statutes and officials regulated private economic activities, some economic activity was the monopoly of the state, and a superintendent oversaw that both private and state owned enterprises followed the same regulations.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=43-44}} The private enterprises were taxed.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=43-44}} Mines were state owned, but leased to private parties for operations, according to chapter 2.12 of the text.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=44-45}} The Arthashastra states that protecting the consumer must be an important priority for the officials of the kingdom.<ref>K Thanawala (2014), Ancient Economic Thought (Editor: Betsy Price), Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415757010}}, page 50</ref>

{{Quote box |width=24em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote='''Tax collection and ripe fruits'''
<poem>
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.
</poem>
|source =—Stocking the Treasury, ''Arthashastra'' 5.2.70{{sfn|Boesche|2002|p=72}}{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=261}}}}
Arthashastra stipulates restraint on taxes imposed, fairness, the amounts and how tax increases should be 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.<ref>Charles Waldauer et al. (1996), Kautilya's Arthashastra: A Neglected Precursor to Classical Economics, Indian Economic Review, Vol. XXXI, No. 1, pages 101-108</ref> 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.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|p=72}} 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.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|p=72}} Historian of economic thought [[Joseph Spengler]] notes:

{{quote|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.<ref>Joseph Spengler (1971), Indian Economic Thought, Duke University Press, {{ISBN|978-0822302452}}, pages 72-73</ref>}}

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.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=43-44, 101, 228-229, 286-287}} 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.<ref>K Thanawala (2014), Ancient Economic Thought (Editor: Betsy Price), Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415757010}}, page 52</ref> Temple and ''[[guru]]kul'' lands were exempt from taxes, fines or penalties.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=99-111}} Trade into and outside the kingdom's borders was subject to toll fees or duties.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|p=140}} Taxes varied between 10% and 25% on industrialists and businessmen, and it could be paid in kind (produce), through labor, or in cash.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=40-45, 99-110, 136-137, 150-153, 173-174, 536-545, 556-557, 572-580, 646-647}}

=== Pregnancy and Abortion ===
For a woman convicted of murder, the sentence of drowning was executed a month after child birth. Pregnant women were also given free ferry rides.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3jbzZkoR36QC&dq=arthashastra+abortion&pg=PT76 | title=The ARTHASHASTRA | isbn=9788184750119 | author1=Kautilya | date=14 October 2000 }}</ref> There was severe punishment for aborting a slave woman.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=3776124 | title=The Political Economy of Abortion in India: Cost and Expenditure Patterns | last1=Duggal | first1=Ravi | journal=Reproductive Health Matters | year=2004 | volume=12 | issue=24 | pages=130–137 | doi=10.1016/S0968-8080(04)24012-5 | pmid=15938166 | s2cid=4649315 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Translations and scholarship==
The text has been translated and interpreted by Shamashastry, Kangle, Trautmann and many others.<ref name=shamasastri8/>{{Sfn|Olivelle|2013}} Recent translations or interpretations include those of [[Patrick Olivelle]]{{Sfn|Olivelle|2013}}<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Manu and the Arthaśāstra, A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality|oclc = 5649173080| doi=10.1023/B:INDI.0000021078.31452.8a |journal = Journal of Indian Philosophy Journal of Indian Philosophy|date = 2004-01-01|issn = 0022-1791|pages = 281–291|volume = 32|issue = 2–3|language = en|first = Patrick|last = Olivelle|s2cid = 170873274}}</ref> and McClish.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Political Brahmanism and the state a compositional history of the Arthaśāstra (PhD Thesis, Advisor: Patrick Olivelle)| url = https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/10568 |publisher = University of Texas|year = 2009 | language = en|first = Mark Richard|last = McClish}};<br />{{Cite journal|title = The dependence of Manu's seventh chapter on Kautilya's Arthas̈a¯stra|jstor = 10.7817/jameroriesoci.134.2.241|oclc=5713382377 | journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society|date = 2014-01-01|issn = 0003-0279|pages = 241–262|volume = 134|issue = 2|language = en|last = McClish M|doi = 10.7817/jameroriesoci.134.2.241}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = The Arthaśāstra selections from the classic Indian work on statecraft|publisher = Hackett|year = 2012| isbn = 978-1603848480|last1 = Kauṭilya|first3 = Mark|last3 = McClish|first2=Patrick|last2=Olivelle|oclc = 934713097}}</ref>

==Influence and reception==
[[File:Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE 2.png|thumb|240px|Maurya Empire in Kautilya's time]]
Scholars state that the Arthashastra was influential in Asian history.<ref name=boeschejmh9/><ref name=albinski62/> Its ideas helped create one of the largest empires in South Asia, stretching from the borders of [[Parthian Empire|Persia]] to Bengal on the other side of the Indian subcontinent, with its capital [[Pataliputra]] twice as large as Rome under Emperor [[Marcus Aurelius]].<ref name=boeschejmh9/>

Kautilya's patron [[Chandragupta Maurya]] consolidated an empire which was inherited by his son Bindusara and then his grandson [[Ashoka]].<ref name=boeschejmh9/> 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.<ref name=albinski62>Henry Albinski (1958), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2109166 The Place of the Emperor Asoka in Ancient Indian Political Thought], Midwest Journal of Political Science, Vol. 2, No. 1, pages 62-75</ref><ref>MV Krishna Rao (1958, Reprinted 1979), Studies in Kautilya, 2nd Edition, {{oclc|551238868}}, {{ISBN|978-8121502429}}, pages 13-14, 231-233</ref>

===Comparisons to Machiavelli===
In 1919, a few years after the newly discovered Arthashastra manuscript's translation was first published, [[Max Weber]] stated:

{{quote|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.<ref>Max Weber, ''[[Politics as a Vocation]]'' (1919). This translation is from ''Weber: Selections in Translation'', ed. W. G. Runciman, trans. Eric Matthews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 212–25 (p. 220); see also [http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma/weber/lecture/politics_vocation.html this translation].  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100131051351/http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma/weber/lecture/politics_vocation.html |date=31 January 2010 }}</ref>}}

More recent scholarship has disagreed with the characterization of ''Arthashastra'' as "Machiavellianism".<ref name=akumar2005>A Kumar (2005), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41856143 The Structure and Principles of Public Organization in Kautilya's Arthashastra], The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 66, No. 3, pages 463-488</ref><ref name=sset710>S Set (2015), Ancient Wisdom for the Modern World: Revisiting Kautilya and his Arthashastra in the Third Millennium, Strategic Analysis, Volume 39, Issue 6, pages 710-714</ref> 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, 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.<ref name=akumar2005/>

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. "The king shall also provide subsistence to helpless women when they are carrying and also to the children they give birth to".{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=18-19}} 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.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=18-19}}

===Views on the role of the state===
[[Roger Boesche]], who relied entirely on the 1969 translation by Kangle for his analysis of Arthashastra,{{refn|group=note|[[Patrick Olivelle]] states that the Kangle edition has problems as it incorrectly relied on a mistaken text as commentary; he has emended the corrections in his 2013 translation. See: Olivelle{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=xv-xvii}}}} and who criticized an alternative 1992 translation by Rangarajan,{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=18-19}} has called the Arthashastra as "a great political book of the ancient world".{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=1-7}} 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.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=7-8}} 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.<ref>Thomas Trautmann (2012), Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0670085279}}, pages 116-139</ref> Boesche is not summarily critical and adds:

{{quote|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.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|p=7}}}}

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.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=15-16}} However, Bhargava states that given Kautilya was the prime minister, one must expect that he implemented the ideas in the book.{{sfn|Boesche|2002|pp=15-16}}

===Views on property and markets===
Thomas Trautmann states that the ''Arthashastra'' in chapter 3.9 recognizes the concept of land ownership rights and other private property, and requires the king to protect that right from seizure or abuse.<ref name=trautmann121/> That 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 "[[Call option|call rights]]", which is not free market.<ref name=trautmann121/> 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.<ref name=trautmann121/> 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.<ref name= trautmann121>Thomas Trautmann (2012), Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0670085279}}, pages 121-127</ref>

The text dedicates Book 3 and 4 to economic laws and a court system to oversee and resolve economic, contracts and market-related disputes.<ref name=trautmann134>Thomas Trautmann (2012), Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0670085279}}, pages 134-138</ref> The text also provides a system of appeal in which three ''dharmastha'' (judges) consider contractual disputes between two parties, and considers profiteering and false claims to dupe customers a crime.<ref name=trautmann134/> The text, states Trautmann, thus anticipates market exchange and provides a framework for its functioning.<ref name=trautmann134/>

===Book on strategy anticipating all scenarios===
{{Quote box |width=26em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote='''Arthashastra and state'''
<poem>
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"&nbsp;– if that word might be used here&nbsp;– as essentially a beneficial institution for protection of human life and welfare and for the better realization of the ideals of humanity.
</poem>
|source =— [[Jan Gonda]]<ref>J Gonda (1957), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3269370 Ancient Indian Kingship from the Religious Point of View (Continued and Ended)], Journal: [[Numen (journal)|Numen]], Vol. 4, Fasc. 2, page 159</ref>}}
More recent scholarship presents a more nuanced reception for the text.<ref name=akumar2005/><ref>Timothy Starzl and Krishna Dhir (1986), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40227819 Strategic Planning 2300 Years Ago: The Strategy of Kautilya], Management International Review, Vol. 26, No. 4, pages 70-77</ref>

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".<ref>BS Sihag (2004), Kautilya on the scope and methodology of accounting, organizational design and the role of ethics in ancient India, The Accounting Historians Journal, Vol 31, Number 2, pages 125-148</ref>

===Realism===
India's former [[National Security Adviser (India)|National Security Adviser]], [[Shiv Shankar Menon]], 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".<ref name="India needs to develop its own doctrine for strategic autonomy: NSA"/> 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".<ref name=sset710/> He recommended reading of the book for broadening the vision on strategic issues.<ref name="India needs to develop its own doctrine for strategic autonomy: NSA">{{cite news|title=India needs to develop its own doctrine for strategic autonomy: NSA|url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/india-needs-to-develop-its-own-doctrine-for-strategic-autonomy-nsa/articleshow/16868737.cms|access-date=18 October 2012|newspaper=The Economic Times|date=18 October 2012|agency=Press Trust of India|location=NEW DELHI}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* Mentioned in season 5 episode 22 of the TV show ''[[Blue Bloods (TV series)|Blue Bloods]]''
* Mentioned in season 3 Episode 1 of the TV show ''[[iZombie (TV series)|iZombie]]''
* The novel ''[[Chanakya's Chant]]'' by Ashwin Sanghi
* The novel ''Blowback'' by Brad Thor
* Mentioned in ''[[Chandragupt Maurya]]'' ([[Hindi]] TV series telecast on ''[[Sony Entertainment Television]]'')
* Telugu Movie [[Chanakya Chandragupta]]
* Mentioned in season 3 episode 5 of the TV show ''[[Dear White People]]''
* Mentioned in the book ''[[Origin Story, A big history of everything]]'' by David Christian
* Mentioned in the book ''[[World Order (book)|World Order]]'' by Henry Kissinger
* Subject of a BBC "In Our Time" podcast The Arthashastra.<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Arthashastra |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014xt4 |website=BBC}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Artha]] and [[Purushartha]] – Indian philosophical concepts
*[[Hindu philosophy]]
*[[History of espionage]]
*[[Matsya Nyaya]]
*[[Nitisara]]
*[[Rajamandala]]
*[[Republic (Plato)|''Republic'' (Plato)]]
*[[Tirukkural]]
*[[Manusmriti]]
*[[Politics (Aristotle)]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation|author-link=Roger Boesche| last=Boesche | first = Roger | title = The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra | year=2002 | publisher = Lexington Books | location = Lanham | isbn = 0-7391-0401-2}}
* {{citation|title=Kautilya Arthashastra, 3 vols|first=R. P. |last= Kangle| publisher=Motilal Banarsidass (Reprinted 2010) | year=1969 | isbn= 978-8120800410}}
* {{cite journal | first = I. W. | last = Mabbett |date=April 1964 | title = The Date of the Arthaśāstra | journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society | volume = 84 | issue = 2 | pages = 162–169 | doi = 10.2307/597102 | jstor = 597102 }}
* {{citation | last=Olivelle | first = Patrick | author-link=Patrick Olivelle | title = King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra | year=2013 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford UK | isbn = 978-0199891825| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6MlgU0oQb4sC|access-date=2016-02-20}}
* {{citation | last=Rangarajan| first=L.N. | year= 1992|publisher= Penguin Classics|isbn= 0-14-044603-6|title=Kautilya: The Arthashastra}}
* {{citation |last1=Rao |first1=Velcheru |last2=Subrahmanyam |first2=Sanjay |chapter=Notes on Political Thought in Medieval and Early Modern South India |editor1=Richard M. Eaton |editor2=Munis D. Faruqui |editor3=David Gilmartin |editor4=Sunil Kumar |title=Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History: Essays in Honour of John F. Richards |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h0_xhdCScQkC&pg=PA164 |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-03428-0 |pages=164–199 |access-date=2016-02-20}}
* {{citation | last = Trautmann | first = Thomas R. | author-link = Thomas Trautmann | title = {{IAST|Kauṭilya}} and the Arthaśāstra: A Statistical Investigation of the Authorship and Evolution of the Text | year = 1971 | publisher = E.J. Brill | location = Leiden }}
*''Arthashastra-Studien'', Dieter Schlingloff, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens, vol. 11, 1967, 44-80 + Abb. 1a-30, ISSN 0084-0084.
* Ratan Lal Basu and Raj Kumar Sen, ''Ancient Indian Economic Thought, Relevance for Today'', {{ISBN|81-316-0125-0}}, Rawat Publications, New Delhi, 2008
* Shoham, Dany, and Michael Liebig. "The intelligence dimension of Kautilyan statecraft and its implications for the present." ''Journal of Intelligence History'' 15.2 (2016): 119–138. 
* [https://www.routledge.com/Kautilyas-Arthashastra-Strategic-Cultural-Roots-of-Indias-Contemporary/Kamal/p/book/9780367535674 Kautilya's Arthashastra: Strategic Cultural Roots of India's Contemporary Statecraft, by Kajari Kamal]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/48535489 Understanding Kautilya's Arthashastra, by Pradeep Kumar Gautam]

{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kautilya-arthashastra Kautilya Arthashastra] English translation by R. Shamasastry 1956 (revised edition with IAST diacritics and interwoven glossary)
* (First English translation, 1915 by R Shamasastry)
*[https://archive.org/details/Arthasastra_English_Translation ''Arthashastra'' (English)] (Another archive of 1915 R Shamasastry translation)
*[http://sarit.indology.info/kautalyarthasastra.xml?view=page ''Arthaśāstra'' (Sanskrit, IAST-Translit)], SARIT Initiative, The British Association for South Asian Studies and The British Academy

{{Hindudharma}}

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