Chanakya's Arthashastra

[KS]

Chanakya himself attributes much of the wisdom of Arthasastra to sage Brihaspathy and it is to him( Shukracharya)that he pays his homage at th beginning of work.

Brahaspati is not Shukracharya according to the Puranas...

While Brahaspati was the counsellor of the Devas, Shuracharya was supposed to the counsellor of the Asuras.

Was that a typo ?

 

[kabutar]

Thank you.

The Arthashastra is India's first and premier treatise on the art of politics, diplomacy, war, and national strategy. It was written sometime in the 4th century B.C.E. by Chanakya, the Prime Minister of the Mauryan Empire and close friend and associate of Chandragupta Maurya.

The Arthashastra is divided into fifteen seperate "books", each concerning a different aspect of statecraft. Thus, I will post the complete Arthashastra as a series of fifteen attachments, with each attachment detailing one book.

Due to the tremendous importance of Chanakya's piece, I request the mods to sticky this thread, so all Indians may appreciate our nation's ancient wisdom.

 

[kabutar]

Unfortunately, it appears that the attachments cannot be opened due to some kind of bug...

But in the meantime I have found an excellent chart showing the political organization of the Mauryan Empire:

Credit goes to the University of Minnesota.

Can we have the same now?

 

[civfanatic]

I finished a few chapters of the book, what's surprising were the views of Brihaspati

By "School of Brhaspati", I think the book refers to the early Charvak school.

The Brhaspatya sutras, the foundation of Charvak philosophy, are believed to have been composed during Mauryan times.

 

[Ankit Purohit]

Re: Books I-V

Chanakya discusses the nature, responsibilites, and conduct of government and government agents.

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Dear civfanatic,

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Why, help me
regards
ankit

 

[civfanatic]

Re: Books I-V

Dear civfanatic,

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Why, help me
regards
ankit

Hmm, it seems the old bug is back.
@LurkerBaba can you look into this?

 

[Ankit Purohit]

Re: Books I-V

Hmm, it seems the old bug is back.
@LurkerBaba can you look into this?

Not a problem,i have found this chapter in google.

thanks for posting .....useful chapter

Jai maa Bharti

 

[LurkerBaba]

Re: Books I-V

Hmm, it seems the old bug is back.
@LurkerBaba can you look into this?

It's fixed now

 

[punjab47]

Title should be

Acharya Chankya Ji Arthashastra

Rajnitishastra says you should worship a man who teaches you even one letter of the dharam else you are a chandal (or worse actually)

Respect is first aspect of worship

So..

 

[I_PLAY_BAD]

I have read arthasastra.
Personally I feel many ideas and practices written in it are simply barbaric and business minded.
When you read it you would feel as if Chanakya has cleverly written everything but after some time when you feed those ideas to your rationale you would start hating Chanakya. Arthasastra may well suit for formulating Foreign, trade and Defence policies but it will never allow you to be a human being when followed in your personal life. Some advices given in it are simply unacceptable and cruel. Also a Government cannot function as it is mentioned in Arthasatra, people will surely riot.
Typical Brahmin thinking and dangerous to the society.

 

[DingDong]

I have read arthasastra.
Personally I feel many ideas and practices written in it are simply barbaric and business minded.
When you read it you would feel as if Chanakya has cleverly written everything but after some time when you feed those ideas to your rationale you would start hating Chanakya. Arthasastra may well suit for formulating Foreign, trade and Defence policies but it will never allow you to be a human being when followed in your personal life. Some advices given in it are simply unacceptable and cruel. Also a Government cannot function as it is mentioned in Arthasatra, people will surely riot.
Typical Brahmin thinking and dangerous to the society.

Commoners comply with laws, Rulers bend and create laws. Morality is subjective, people with high emotional quotient are unfit to rule.

 

[Yumdoot]

Brahaspati is not Shukracharya according to the Puranas...

While Brahaspati was the counsellor of the Devas, Shuracharya was supposed to the counsellor of the Asuras.

Was that a typo ?

Kautilya does pay respects to both Brihaspati and Shukracharya even though both acharyas are enimical to each other.

So does Krishna in Gita where he mentions in different shloks of chapter 10 that #24-'Among Purohits I am Brihaspati' and #37-'among kavis I am Ushana' where Ushana=Shukracharya.

The Indian astrology also considers both Brihaspati and Shukracharya as important for lifetime of a jataka.

So I guess no need to feel conflicted.

 

[vram]

I have read arthasastra.
Personally I feel many ideas and practices written in it are simply barbaric and business minded.
When you read it you would feel as if Chanakya has cleverly written everything but after some time when you feed those ideas to your rationale you would start hating Chanakya. Arthasastra may well suit for formulating Foreign, trade and Defence policies but it will never allow you to be a human being when followed in your personal life. Some advices given in it are simply unacceptable and cruel. Also a Government cannot function as it is mentioned in Arthasatra, people will surely riot.
Typical Brahmin thinking and dangerous to the society.

No ancient treatise should be taken as the gospel of truth and followed exactly .That leads to a decay of civilization. Only new ideas and acceptance of the strange can take the land forward . Ideas and the desire to progress are greatest gift of humankind. That is why I do not subscribe much to any ancient books of religion .I only accept what is morally correct to me from even the Bhagavad Gita.
The cosmic nature has given us the capacity to reason and understand. What is religion but a construct of the human mind. Human have existed for only about a few thousand decades. Can we even imagine this with the context of the sun which is already 5 billion years old??? We are a mere eyeblink and we dare to imagine the supernatural in our image ??

 

[Mad Indian]

.I only accept what is morally correct to me from even the Bhagavad Gita.

Have you read Gita? From the little I have read, there is no dos or donts in it. Only questions to which we are supposed to come to a conclusion on our own

 

[asingh10]

Arthashastra is a book on statecraft, not a book on morality. You can call it barbaric but western strategists have been studying it along side Sun Tzu's Art of War, Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, The Book Of Lord Shang Yang & Machiaveli's Prince.

 

[asingh10]

Many things that happen in PRC have roots in classical Chinese legalism as well. Mao was himself inspired by Shang Yang as is the current president. Of course the Chinese normalize & make the necessary changes to keep legalism relevant. This is the core of the Chinese civilization, everything else like Communism , Buddhism, Confucianism is a facade to fool the world.

MAO TSE-TUNG ON LEGALISM AND LORD SHANG

HOW CHINA'S ANCIENT PAST INFLUENCED ITS FUTURE

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/China/Mao on Shang Yang.htm

It's no wonder some one like Nehru was outsmarted by Mao. If Hindu sensibilities are so easily offended by Arthashastra then what future do we really have against our ruthless, predatory civilizational foes ?

 

[Yumdoot]

Arthashastra is a book on statecraft, not a book on morality. You can call it barbaric but western strategists have been studying it along side Sun Tzu's Art of War, Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, The Book Of Lord Shang Yang & Machiaveli's Prince.

Arthashastra is about statecraft but it would be wrong to say it is not about morality. It is very much about Indian concept of Morality. Kautilya wrote Arthashastra as a distilled product of all the extant understanding of his times. So say for example, the lay population would enjoy the tales from Pauranic-granth but for the bureaucrats, administrators, ministers, King and his family and his employees this was the highly distilled product.

As an aside, it would not be very fruitful for foreigners to try to read Arthashastra. In fact without the benefit of vernacular/sanskrit versions and simultaneous benefit of cultural upbringing even Indians will have a hard time understanding it properly. I have read in bits and pieces out of only one english version ie. by R. Shamasastry and its dull and dry with little practical use. Reminded me of what I felt when I first read the Bible.

I would like to read Sun Tzu in Chinese directly but then that is in the future.

What is Muqaddimah about. Book's name sounds very bollywood - muakil ka mukadhma etc.

And who is Shang Yang?
Wiki suggests Shang Yang died around competing dynasties. Not a good way to die if you are a teacher. But I guess the Chinese are not averse to mixing up teachers and rulers into a singular role, like the rest of the world. Probably also the reason Chinese convert easily.

 

[vram]

Have you read Gita? From the little I have read, there is no dos or donts in it. Only questions to which we are supposed to come to a conclusion on our own

I was an avid reader of some of the chapters in the Gita during my college days.It is a very difficult book to pigeon hole into a category. But it does have some definitive standards on the morality of a Human being and the the path of Karma and Dharma.
The Rig Veda is actually the book that questions a lot on the nature of Dharma and also on the very nature of human existence. One of the most commonly quoted (and mis-understood part ) is the Nasadiya Suktam. But there are many other stanzas like this which question a lot and confuse you . They also leave things very vague.

 

[Mad Indian]

But there are many other stanzas like this which question a lot and confuse you . They also leave things very vague.

But that's what I love about it . A good book should work to make you work and come to your conclusions and should actively confuse you and rethink your positions several times.


For example, have you heard of the train problem on morality?let's say there is a train coming and 5 people are tied to the track and are going to be killed. But you control a switch which will divert the train to another track which has only one person stuck on it. Now , will you divert the train to kill one person(with your action) to save 5? Or will you cause the death of 5 people due to your inaction? What if the one person on the other track is an innocent 1yr old child? Which of these actions is morally right?


This is why Gita is more suited to 21 century and beyond than Koran or Bible. It gives no absolutes and provokes our morality

 

[Abhijat]

For example, have you heard of the train problem on morality?let's say there is a train coming and 5 people are tied to the track and are going to be killed. But you control a switch which will divert the train to another track which has only one person stuck on it. Now , will you divert the train to kill one person(with your action) to save 5? Or will you cause the death of 5 people due to your inaction? What if the one person on the other track is an innocent 1yr old child? Which of these actions is morally right?

Going by Moral values , I will not divert the train , because it will create an action by which I became part of death of one person.

But by ethics , I will divert the train , as 5>1 , so save more no. of people.