Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.s3.2

c8.s3.2

In view of Strabo's attacks upon the veracity of Megasthenes, it is curious to find that his account of the constitution of Chandragupta finds close confirmation in many details in a Hindu book on Politics, traditionally ascribed to Kauṭilya or Cāṇakya, the famous Brahmin minister of the Maurya Emperor. This work is the Kauṭilīya Artha Śāstra. In this book we find the king's palace described very much after the manner of Megasthenes, with its moats, ramparts and towers. The king is surrounded by a bodyguard of "women armed with bows," as Megasthenes says. (Artha Śāstra, II. 3.)