Kautilya: the arthashast-ra

1. PPT ON
KAUTILYA : THE
ARTHASHAST-RA

2. KAUTILYA: THE ARTHASHASTRA
 Kautilya: Kautilya is believed to be the chief adivser of
Chandragupta Maurya.
 Kautilya’s Arthashtra, a book on statecraft was written in
the Maurya period in 4th century B.C.
 The text was divided into 15chapters known as books.
Different books deal with different subject matters.
• Polity
• Economy
• Society
 The king’s duties, the code of conduct of officers,
agriculture and industry, taxation, the inter-state relations
etc. were all detailed in the work.

3.  Kautilya mentioned seven elements essential for a state
namely:-
1) Swami –(King)
2) Janapada –(People)
3) Amatya –(Ministers)
4) Danda –(Sovereignty)
5) Kosha –(Treasury)
6) Durga –(Fort-Defence)
7) Mitra –(Foreign Relations)

4. Kautilya’s Arthashastra regards the king to be the key in
the working of the state administrative machinery.
a) Education of the princes
b) Duties of the king
c) Selection of ministers
d) Organisation of the different departments of the state
e) Justice
f) Taxation
g) Foreign policy etc

5. Kautilya separated ethics from politics.
i. He was of the view that the king may resort to
ruthless approach for the security and safety of the
empire.
ii. But this does not mean that the king was immoral.
iii. Kautilya lays much stress on morality in the personal
life of the king.
iv. King should have full control over his senses viz.,
lust, anger, greed, vanity, haughtiness and pleasure,
because they have often brought the downfall of
various kingdoms.

6. Kautilya’s work is far more varied-and entertaining-than
usual accounts of its indication. He mixes the harsh
pragmatism for which he is famed with compassion for the
poor, for slaves,and for women. He reveals the
imagination of a romancer in imagining all manner of
scenarios which can hardly have been common place in
real life.

7. Kautilya has laid down the ideals of kingship thus.
“In the happiness of his subjects lies his happiness, in
their welfare, his welfare, what pleases him, he shall not
consider as good, but whatever pleases his subjects he
shall consider as good.”
Far from being single-mindedly aimed at preserving the
monarch’s power for its own sake, the Arthasastra
requires the ruler to benefit and protect his citizens,
including the peasants, whom Kautilya correctly believes
to be the ultimate source of the prosperity of the kingdom.

8. He therefore advocates the “land reform”. He suggested
that :
1. Lands may be confiscated from those who do not
cultivate them and given to others; or they may be
cultivated by village labourers and traders.
2. The king shall bestow on cultivators only such favour
and remission as will tend to swell the treasury and shall
avoid such as deplete it.
3. The king shall provide the orphans, the aged, the infirm,
the afflicted, and the helpless women when they are
carrying and also to the children they give birth to.

9. 1) Elders among the villagers shall improve the
property bereaved minors till the latter attain their age;
so also the property of gods.
2) When a capable person other than an apostate or
mother neglected to maintain his or her child,
wife,mother, father, minor brothers, sisters or widowed
girls, he or she shall be punished with a fine of twelve
panas (i.e. money unit of that time).

10.  When, without making provision for the maintenance of
his wife and sons, any person embraces asceticism, he
shall be punished with the first amercement (a small
fine, between 12 and 96 panas), likewise any person
who converts a woman to asceticism.
 Whoever has passed the age of copulation may
become an ascetic after distributing the properties of
his own acquisition (among his sons), otherwise he will
be punished.

11. o Deceiving a slave of his money or depriving him of the
privileges he can exercise as an Arya (i.e., an upper-
caste person, a Brahmin) shall be punished with half
the fine (levied for enslaving the life of an Arya).
o A man who takes in mortgage a person who runs
away, or who dies or who is incapacitated by disease,
shall be entitled to receive back (from the mortgagor)
the value he paid for the slave.
o Employing a slave to carry the dead or to sweep
ordure, urine or the leavings of food (these are defiling
tasks reserved for the so-called “untouchable” castes,
who are considred beneath even slaves) or a female
slave to attend on the master while he is bathing
naked; or hurting or abusing him or her, or violating
(the chastity) of a female slave shall cause the
forfeiture of the value paid for him or her.

12.  According to Kautilya -ideal of kingship
 He should be a conqueror
 Powerful army
 Win over the enemy kings
 Employ all fair or treacherous methods to win the war

13.  Kautilya describes how a king may retain his power or
preserve his life after he has been overthrown as
below:
 Contrivances to kill the enemy may be formed in those
places of worship and visit, which the enemy, under the
influence of faith.
 A wall or stone, kept by mechanical contrivance, may,
by loosening the fastenings, be let to fall on the head of
the enemy.
 Under the plea of giving him flowers, scented powers.
 Or having challenged the conqueror at night.
 He strike the enemy with his concealed army.
The king was expected to consult the ministers of his
Mantri Parishad in secrecy but it was not binding on
him to accept their decision.