Chanakya's Arthashastra

civfanatic

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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.
 

civfanatic

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civfanatic

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RAM

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Books I-V
Chanakya discusses the nature, responsibilites, and conduct of government and government agents.

1) Concerning Discipline.pdf
2) The Duties of Government.pdf
3) Concerning law.pdf
4) The Removal of Thorns.pdf
5) The Conduct of Courtiers.pdf
Books VI-X
Chanakya discusses the good and bad qualities of rulers, the various threats to a nation's people and sovereignty, and the conduct of war and national defense.


6) The Source of Soverign States.pdf
7) The End of the Six-Fold Policy.pdf
8) Concerning Vices and Calamities.pdf
9) The Work of an Invader.pdf
10) Relating to War.pd
Books XI-XV
Chanakya discusses the importance of a nation's internal and economic health, covert means of destroying an enemy, and the conduct of diplomacy.

11) The Conduct of Corporations and the National Economy.pdf
12) Concerning a Powerful Enemy.pdf
13) Strategic Means to Capture a Fortress.pdf
14) Secret Means.pdf
15) The Plan of a Treatise.pdf
Useful and Good Compilation.Thnx civfanatic.
 

pmaitra

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Many thanks CivFanatic.

Also, MODs, kindly make this one sticky.

Thanks!
 

Nagraj

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I wish our friends across the border will go through some of these pdfs ......
this wlll provide them first hand account of chnkya niti .
understanding chankya niti will will give them form a better opinion on the question "wheather india does or doesn't employ chankya niti against pakistan".
i hope with some intelligent answer to this question they will reduce their panariao about india.
 

shuvo@y2k10

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india should use these ancient wisdom to destabilize pakistan and china.
 

johnee

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Great work civfanatic...very useful and handy. Just a small nitpick:

The Arthashastra is India's first and premier treatise on the art of politics, diplomacy, war, and national strategy.
Arthashastra is, indeed, one of the premier treatise on politics, diplomacy, and war strategies. But it would be wrong to say that it is the first treatise or the only treatise. India has always been home of all these arts. As you know, politics was practised as an art much before Chanakya. Diplomacy and spying was honed into a skill, long before Mauryas. War strategies, and Governance was taught and learnt in India from times immemorial. Even Ramayana and Mahabharata are full of such accounts.
 

S.A.T.A

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Kautalya's Arthasastra more than a treatise in itself,which it is,was perhaps a part of the genre of Shastras which dealt with organizing and regulating a society.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.Vatsayana himself attributes Arthasastra to Brihaspthy.Kamandaka the author Nitisara a work later to Kautalya's Arthasastra which borrows hevily from Chanakya,attributes the authorship of Nitisara to Shukracharya.

Brihaspatya Sutra,another work pertaining to polity,which might be anterior to Arthasastra,is attributed to Brihaspathy or at any rate to his disciple Carvaka ,Carvaka or atleast his school of philosophy(whose existence is noted even by kautalya) existed before the age of Buddha.

Dharmashastras,many of which probably originated anterior to Kautalya's Arthasatraalso deal with statecraft and the principles of organizing and regulating societies.besides Manusmritis ,Manu is also attributed to have authored manava-Arthashastra(Arthashastra of Manu).Sage Usanas is also credited to have authored Ausanasa Arthashastra .Another work,perhaps older than Arthashastra, called Dandanitiis attributed to Usanas(although it must be noted that dDandaniti's authorship is also attributed alternatively to Prajapathi).Both may have predated Chanakya,although reference to their woks comes from citations in works later than kautalya.

Mahabharatha itself contains many political aphorisms which may have been from borrowed from works,including the authors mentioned above,extant during the time of its composition,It regards Manu,Bharadwaja,Brihaspathy,Shukra,and Gaurasiras as Rajasastrapranetarah(authors on science of statecraft).

This clearly illustrates that statecraft and polity was deeply and methodically studied long before the Mauryan state,but without a doubt Kautalya's Arthashastra remains the most illustrious scholarship in this tradition of knowledge.
 

Tshering22

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Thanks a ton for this thread Civ!

As all requested, Mods please make this a Sticky Thread :).

As for Zaid Hamid and the rest of clowns calling for how India applies Arthashastra against them, if our myopic governments had indeed applied these theories on our neighbourhood, All the partition would have been undone, jihad would have been a fiction and we would have disabled the future prospects of a nuclear failed state around us forever. :D

At least the next government should hopefully be smart enough to actually apply this.
 

sant

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When we have these kind of national treasures , why we are running behind western methods ?
 

civfanatic

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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.
 

LurkerBaba

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

"The School of Brihaspati considers only Economics and politics as true branches of knowledge, those versed in the Vedas use them only as a cover "
Such was the tradition of skepticism and rationalism in those times ! (in a supposedly "brahminical" discussion)
 

IBSA

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I arranged an english version of book and i'm reading it.
 

bushido

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CivFanatic : Could you please repost the pdfs, I am unable to browse through them.
Thanks.
 

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