(flourished c. 300 BCE), Indian political author. Kautilya or Canakya is usually identified as the minister of the Emperor Candragupta Maurya (321–287 BCE). However, there have been reputable scholars who dated Kautilya's major work, the Arthasastra (if it is his), to around 300 CE, thus making it a work of the Gupta period (c. 320–c. 500 CE) rather than a Mauryan work. The book, a manual of practical politics, has often been compared to Machiavelli's The Prince. It covers numerous governmental and military topics: the education and discipline of princes, the qualifications of government ministers, the different kinds of spies, the regular duties of a king, the organization and superintendence of government departments, the administration and fortification of towns, regulation of prostitution, civil law, filling the king's treasury, salaries of government servants, seven elements of kingship, six lines of policy, vices of a king, calamities and disasters affecting the state, military campaigning, guilds and corporations, how to win wars, how to become popular in a conquered country, recipes for various mixtures (though not gunpowder) that might spread disease and aid in warfare, and a final description of Kautilya's plan of the work. It is written in Sanskrit and has many obscure technical terms, though in other respects its language is clear.
Further Reading
Kautilya. (1929) Kautilya's Arthasastra. Trans. by R. Shamasastry. Mysore, India: Wesleyan Mission Press.
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