Kautiliya Arthasastra Revisited (Part 11)

by Surendra Nath Mital

The book has been written as a reply to T.R. Trautmann`s Kautilya and the Arthasastra, in which he tried to prove, with the help of statistics, that the Arthasastra was a compilation of writings by three or four authors, edited by Kautilya. Mital tries to show, through his own collection of statistics, that Trautmann`s thesis is misconceived and that va was more frequently used in those portions of the text where the subject treated is primarily political, and ca was more frequently used where the discussion is primarily theoretical, and so this difference in the frequency of use of va and ca does not indicate different authors. Mital asserts that the Arthasastra was written by Kautilya in the fourth century BC, as is generally supposed, and not in the third century AD, a view propounded by some Western as also some Indian scholars who wrote in the 1920s and 1930s. The book will be of interest not only to scholars of Indology and of Indian students of ancient Indian history.

About the Author:

S.N. MITAL was formerly Reader of Political Science, Allahabad University. His main areas of specialization are Ancient Indian Social, Political and Economic thought.