The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c18.93

c18.93

The description of the court and civil and military administration of Chandragupta Maurya, derived mainly from Greek authorities, as given in the preceding pages, was practically uncorroborated when the first edition of this book was published in 1904. But since that time an Indian scholar has made accessible by means of translation, the discourse on the Art of Government traditionally ascribed to Chānakya Vishnugupta, or Kautilya, the Brahman minister of Chandragupta. The researches of German scholars have established beyond doubt the fact that the treatise entitled *Arthaśāstra*, or the Science of Policy, is an authentic composition of the Maurya age. Whether or not it was actually written by Chānakya, as it professes to have been, is immaterial. The book certainly expounds the principles of statecraft current in his age, which must have guided his successful policy. It is of extraordinary value and interest, shedding ‘more light upon the realities of ancient India, especially as concerns administration, law, trade, war, and peace, than any text which we possess’. The treatise may be read, from one point of view, as a commentary on and exposition of the notes recorded by the Greek observers. References to a few passages in illustration of certain details from that point of view, have been inserted above in the notes, but a fuller notice of some of the contents is indispensable, and will be found to add largely to the knowledge gained from the writings of the Greek authors.