Kautilya

Kautilya (also known as Kautalya, Canakya, Chanakya, or Visnugupta) (active c.300 bc). Hindu statesman, philosopher, and writer of the Arthasastra, the classic ancient Hindu political text. Kautilya was the PM and chief political adviser to Chandragupta, ruler of the Magadha empire from 320 bc to c.297 bc. Under Kautilya's guidance, Chandragupta consolidated his dynasty, defeated Seleucos Nicator's attempt to claim the heritage of Alexander ‘the Great’ in India, and expanded his empire. However, Kautilya is more important for the political theories expounded in the Arthasastra.

The central idea of Kautilya's doctrine was the prosperity of king and country and the king's struggle for victory against his rival neighbouring states. The king had to try to defeat one after another of his enemies. Kautilya identified seven factors of power, which affected his ability to do so. These factors were first, the qualities of the king, then of his ministers, his provinces, his city, his treasure, his army, and his allies. The aim of the Arthasastra was to instruct the king on how to improve the qualities of these factors and undermine those of his enemies. He provided detailed instruction for spies and agents and showed great understanding of the weakness of human nature, earning himself comparison with Machiavelli.

Bibliography

• Kulke, Hermann, and Rothermund, Dietmar, A History of India (London, 1986)

— Chris Mann

Kautilya (4th century B.C.), also known as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is traditionally known as the author of the "Arthashastra", the celebrated ancient Indian work on polity, and as the counselor of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya empire.

Most of the details of the life of Kautilya are uncertain and shrouded in myth and legend. Ancient Indian tradition describes him as a native of Taxila (near Peshawar in modern Pakistan) who had journeyed to Pataliputra (Patna), capital of the Nanda empire, in search of recognition of his learning. There he was insulted by Dhana Nanda, last of the Nanda rulers, and the irascible Brahmin swore vengeance on the house of the Nandas. Pursued by Nanda soldiers, Kautilya escaped into the forests, where he met the young Chandragupta Maurya. Kautilya took Chandragupta to Taxila. This was the time when Alexander's legions were invading northwestern India. Alexander retreated from the Punjab in 325 B.C., and soon thereafter Chandragupta worked his dynastic revolution, killing Dhana Nanda and becoming the ruler of India. Indian tradition asserts that Kautilya had masterminded this revolution and continued as Chandragupta's counselor.

The Arthashastra

Whatever the nature of accounts of Kautilya's life, it is certain that Kautilya was a historical figure and that he was responsible for the compilation of a work on polity, a work that has exerted a profound influence on the development of political ideas in traditional India. The Arthashastra was believed to have been lost and was known only through references to it and quotations from it in subsequent works on law and polity in Sanskrit. It was discovered and published in the 1920s and immediately provoked extensive discussion on the nature of its contents and their implications for understanding the traditional Indian polity.

The Arthashastra is not a work on political philosophy, which it treats only incidentally, but a manual of instruction on the administration of a state and ways to meet challenges to it. Kautilya is a thoroughgoing political realist and often gives the impression of being amoral. He views the state as a seven-limbed organism which grows in war and whose purpose is to destroy its enemies and extend the territory under its control by all means, including aggression against and subversion of its opponents.

The work treats of the many departments of governmental administration and pays special attention to war, preparation for it, and its triumphant execution. The bureaucracy, as envisioned by Kautilya, must be all-pervasive, efficient, and honest. The king is the central point of this vast and sprawling bureaucratic structure, and Kautilya's exhortation to him is to be on guard at all times. Kautilya's Arthashastra is often compared to Machiavelli's Prince, with which it shares many common philosophical and practical views. In its spirit of realpolitik and machtpolitik it reveals an altogether surprising aspect of the Indian civilization.

Further Reading

The most scholarly edition and translation of the Arthashastrais by R. P. Kangle, The Kautiliya Arthasastra (3 vols., 1965). R. Shamasastry, The Arthashastra (1956), has long been a standard work of reference. M. V. Krishna Rao, Studies in Kautilya (1953; 2d rev. ed. 1958), presents the Arthashastra ideas in a popular style. U. N. Ghoshal, A History of Indian Political Ideas (1959), has extensive materials on the statecraft of Kautilya.

(c. 300 bc) Kautilya (also known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta) is known as the author of the Arthashastra (which can be translated as The Art of Well-being or The Science of Polity), a book which is part political philosophy, part manual of statecraft. Although the Arthashastra had been referred to in other ancient books, a full text was only rediscovered in 1904, when an ancient copy, written on palm leaves, was handed over to an Indian librarian by an anonymous donor.

Kautilya was a political adviser in the service of Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan empire which stretched across the north of the Indian subcontinent. The Arthashastra describes the means by which a state should be established and maintained in the face of the threat of competing powers and an inherent danger of social instability. In the absence of the state, people are subject to the ‘law of the fishes’, whereby the stronger swallows the weak. The role of the king is to enhance the prosperity of his people, increasing the power of the state, and expanding the territory through conquest. The prosperity of the people is enhanced through the promotion of trade, the development of infrastructure (such as dams and communications), and the strict enforcement of a system of law and order. A comprehensive list of crime and punishment is set down, ranging from being publicly smeared with dung for minor theft to being boiled alive for sleeping with a queen. The power of the state stems from a strong basis in trade which is harnessed through a taxation system run by a well-maintained civil service.

The issue of territorial protection and conquest is the basis of Kautilya's most incisive political thought, and can be taken to be an early guide to the field of international relations. Here he deals with a wide variety of strategies, which can be used independently or in combination, to deal with different situations according to the relative strengths of the opposition. These strategies include conciliation (through flattery, bribery, or other inducements), sowing dissent amongst the opposition, forming coalitions with other rulers, consolidation, and the use of hostility and force. Different circumstances are described, along with the appropriate choice of strategy, the likely outcome, and the appropriate pay-offs for the actors involved. Kautilya has been compared to Machiavelli in the breadth of his statecraft, and also for his willingness to use deceit and intrigue, not just against opponents but also to bolster the king's reputation with his people. However, the Arthashastra exhibits a repeated commitment to the welfare of the people, and principles of order and justice. The duty of a conqueror, for instance, is to ‘substitute his virtues for the defeated enemy's vices, and where the enemy was good he shall be twice as good’.

— Alistair McMillan