The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c18.94

c18.94

It is not desirable to amalgamate the rules laid down in the *Arthaśāstra* with the descriptions recorded by the Greeks, because the latter present to us the impression made upon foreign observers of institutions actually existing at a particular date, 300 B. C. in round numbers, after the foundation of the Maurya empire; whereas the former express the arrangements favoured by Brahman ministers, as suitable for any independent kingdom at any time. The *Arthaśāstra* text-book cites the opinions of many earlier authors of unknown antiquity, and treats of the political state of India prior to the establishment of a paramount power by the Mauryas.¹ We may accept it as an authoritative account of political and social conditions in the Gangetic plain in the age of Alexander the Great, 325 B. C. The book does not concern itself with the Dravidian kingdoms of the South, which were organized in other fashions.