Readings in Kautilya’s Arthasastra

Contents: 1. A welfare state. 2. The king. 3. The civil service. 4. Food and agriculture. 5. Industries. 6. Control of market. 7. Law and justice. 8. Social life. 9. Food and drink. 10. Slaves and labourers. 11. Religion. Index. 

From the introduction: Since its discovery in the early years of the twentieth century, the Kautil’ya Arthasastra has been used by scholars of Indian history with such a gusto as rarely seen in utilization of any ancient source material. The present author has been for many years lecturing to his post-graduate students on this treatise, and has also contributed research papers on some topics pertaining to this work. Generally, scholars have drawn upon the Arthasastra to promote their views on ancient Indian administration in general and the Mauryan polity in particular. It has been treated more for corroboration if ideas or other sources, literary archaeological and foreign accounts. In the essays collected in the present volume what has been attempted is to collect from all over the treatise what it contains about a particular topic under study and to analyse the data. In one word we have here what the Arthasastra has to say, without going into its date and authenticity and its position as regards other sources.