The Arthaśāstra

The Arthaśāstra Selections from the Classic Indian Work on Statecraft The Arthaśāstra Selections from the Classic Indian Work on Statecraft Edited and Translated, with an Introduction, by Mark McClish and Patrick Olivelle Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Indianapolis/Cambridge Copyright © 2012 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 For further information, please address Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. P.O. Box 44937 Indianapolis, Indiana 46244-0937 www.hackettpublishing.com Cover design by To come Interior design by Mary Vasquez Composition by Innodata-Isogen, Inc. Printed at Data Reproductions Corporation Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kautalya. [Arthasastra. English. Selections] The Arthasastra : selections from the classic Indian work on statecraft/ edited and translated, with an introduction, by Mark McClish and Patrick Olivelle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60384-849-7 (cloth)—ISBN 978-1-60384-848-0 (pbk.) 1. Political science—India—History—Early works to 1800. 2. State, The—Early works to 1800. 3. India—Politics and government–To 997– Early works to 1800. 4. India—Social conditions—Early works to 1800. I. McClish, Mark. II. Olivelle, Patrick. III. Title. JA84.I4K3813 2012 320.0934–dc23 2012014017 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. Contents Introduction ix Authorship and Date xi The Cāṇakya Legend xi The Composer of the Arthaśāstra: The Historical Kauṭilya xv Date and Location of the Arthaśāstra xix Historical Context xxi The Indus Valley Period xxii The Vedic Period xxiii The Classical Period xxvii Arthaśāstra: Text and Tradition xxxiii The Concept of Artha xxxiii The Genre of Śāstra xxxv The Tradition of Statecraft xxxix Structure and Style of the Text xli The World of the Arthaśāstra xliii Kingship and Royal Authority xlvi Ruling a Kingdom liv The King’s Administration lvi The Layout of the Kingdom lix Society lxi Religion and Ethics lxvi Conquest and Success lxx Contents of the Complete Arthaśāstra lxxiii Select Bibliography lxxxiii v vi Contents Selections from the Arthaśāstra Chapter One: How to be a Good King 1 1.1 Training of a King 2 Education 2 Training of Character 7 1.2 Taking Counsel 8 1.3 Daily Routine 10 1.4 Personal Security 12 Chapter Two: The Kingdom 17 2.1 Constituents of a Kingdom 17 2.2 Construction of Fortified Cities 19 Construction of Forts 19 Layout of the Fort 22 2.3 Security of the Royal Residence 25 2.4 Rules for the City 27 2.5 Rules for Constructing Neighborhoods 29 2.6 Settling the Countryside 31 2.7 Protecting Against Calamities 34 Chapter Three: Central Administration 37 3.1 Appointments to the Central Administration 39 General Qualifications 39 Counselor-Chaplain (Mantripurohita) 41 Treasurer (Samnidhātṛ) 42 Collector (Samāhartṛ) 45 3.2 Superintendents of Departments 47 Appointment and Conduct of Superintendents 48 Superintendent of Customs 49 Superintendent of Yarn 52 Superintendent of Agriculture 54 Superintendent of Liquor 55 Superintendent of Shipping 57 Superintendent of Horses 58 Superintendent of Elephants 59 Contents vii 3.3 Revenue Streams 61 Taxation 63 Fees, Customs, and Levies 63 Fines 65 3.4 Treasury 65 Chapter Four: The Judiciary 71 4.1 Organization of Courts 73 4.2 Valid Transactions and Transactors 74 4.3 Judicial Procedure 76 Filing of Lawsuits 76 Evidence: Witnesses 78 4.4 Titles of Law 81 Family Law 81 Inheritance 83 Debts 85 Interest Rates 87 Employment 88 Sale without Ownership 90 Verbal Assault 90 Physical Assault 92 Gambling and Betting 93 Chapter Five: Internal Security and Suppression of Criminal Activities 97 5.1 Internal Secret Service 98 Clandestine Operatives: Informants 99 Clandestine Operatives: Mobile Agents 101 Testing the Loyalty and Honesty of State Employees 103 Secret Punishments 105 Punishment of State Officials 107 5.2 Magistrates and Police 110 Investigations of Crimes and Murder 111 Suppression of Crimes 115 5.3 Prisons and Jails 117 viii Contents Chapter Six: Foreign Affairs 119 6.1 Circle Doctrine of States: Allies and Enemies 120 6.2 Six Measures of Foreign Policy 122 6.3 Envoys 124 6.4 Foreign Secret Service 126 Chapter Seven: War 129 7.1 The Structure of the Army 130 7.2 Military Expedition 135 Marching 136 Military Camp 138 7.3 Battle Tactics 140 Accounting for Terrain 141 Encouraging the Troops 143 Battle Arrays and Combat 144 7.4 Taking a Fort 150 7.5 Conduct in Victory 154 7.6 Conquering the Earth 155 Index of Passages 157 Word Index 161 Introduction1 Like East Asia and the Mediterranean world, South Asia, in the first millennium before the Common Era, gave birth to a “classical” civilization. During this period, South Asia saw the integration of its political landscape, the advent of writing, the systematization of critical inquiry, the establishment of distinctive and long-lasting intellectual traditions, the rise of Jainism, Buddhism, and Classical Hinduism, and the evolution and maturation of formal disciplines of architecture, visual arts, dance, poetry, drama, and literature. In brief, this is the period during which a transregional South Asian culture took on its distinctive forms: mature, cosmopolitan, and self-reflective traditions that provided the subcontinent, as also regions of southeast and central Asia, with a shared cultural orientation and a common political, intellectual, ethical, philosophical, and aesthetic heritage. There is no consensus on the periodization of 1. We are indebted to the research of the following scholars in this Introduction: On the Cāṇakya legend, T. Trautmann. 1971, Kauṭilya and the Arthaśāstra, Leiden: Brill, and T. Burrow, 1968, “Cāṇakya and Kauṭalya,” Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 48–49: 17–31. On trade in the classical period, Federico De Romanis, 2000, “Esportazioni di corallo mediterraneo in India nell’età ellenistico-romana,” In Corallo di ieri corallo di oggi, ed. Jean-Paul Morel, Cecilia Rondi-Costanzo, and Danela Ugolini, pp. 211–16, Centro Universitario Europeo Per i Beni Culturali, Scienze e materiali del patrimonio culturale, 5, Bari: Edipuglia. On the archaeology of classical urban centers, D. Schlingloff, 1969, Die altindsche Stadt: Eine vergleichende Untersuchung, Wiesbaden: Steiner. On the geography of the text, M. Willis, 2009, The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual: Temples and the Establishment of the Gods, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. On many important issues pertaining to the content and structure of the Arthaśāstra, see the works of Kangle, Scharfe, and Trautmann in the Select Bibliography. ix x Introduction South Asian history, but for the purposes of this Introduction we consider the classical period to have lasted from approximately 600 BCE to 600 CE. Of great importance to the evolution of a shared South Asian culture in the classical period was the development of elite intellectual traditions of inquiry into various topics and their systematization into a complete taxonomy of human knowledge. These traditions included grammar, mathematics, geometry, lexicography, poetics, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, ritual, dance, erotics, aesthetics, drama, law, philosophy, medicine, and, most pertinent to the present text, political science or “statecraft.” Each of these subjects and more became discrete intellectual traditions unto themselves, evolving sophisticated theories, developing technical vocabularies, and sustaining vibrant debate among diverse scholarly perspectives. Within each of these “expert traditions” emerged distinctive schools of thought, each with their characteristic dispositions and viewpoints, that passed on the teachings of their most re- vered masters through the generations. The text presented to you in this reader is the most illustrious and important treatise (śāstra) from the classical expert tradition on statecraft (artha), composed by a man named Kauṭilya and passed down by his followers, who called themselves and their school the “Kauṭilīyas” or “the followers of Kauṭilya.” Hence, this treatise on statecraft is called the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra, “The Manual of Statecraft of Kauṭilya” or “of the Followers of Kauṭilya.” Part of the importance of the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra (hereafter simply referred to as the Arthaśāstra) derives from the fact that it is the only treatise devoted entirely to statecraft to have survived from the classical period. As such, it is an invaluable resource for understanding how intellectuals and rulers of that time understood and explained the project of running a kingdom. Given the vastness of such an undertaking, Kauṭilya’s treatise provides a comprehensive look at classical society unparalleled by other sources from the period. In keeping with the enor- mous complexity of administering a kingdom, the Arthaśāstra Introduction xi deals with an incredible variety of topics, from the education of the king to the capturing of wild elephants, from the sea- sons for sowing crops to pulling down the walls of an enemy’s citadel, from metallurgy to divorce. Amidst such discussions, the Arthaśāstra grants us panoramic views of issues such as the relationship between the monarchy and religious institutions as well as ordinary glimpses of everyday life. Furnished with a pragmatic attitude about society and culture that is unclouded by the strong religious and ideological biases that pervade con- temporary

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