The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c20.3

c20.3

A collection of maxims attributed to Chāṇakya, alias Kauṭilya, or Vishṇu-gupta, the Brahman minister of Chandragupta Maurya, has long been known (see Weber, *Hist. Indian Liter.* (Trübner), p. 210). But the *Arthaśāstra*, although mentioned and quoted by many ancient authors, had wholly disappeared from view until Mr. R. Shamasastry (Shama Sastri), the learned Librarian of the Oriental Library maintained by the Maharaja of Mysore, brought to notice a manuscript of the work belonging to a pundit in the Tanjore District.¹ The pundit was good enough to deposit the MS. in the library, along with an imperfect MS. of a commentary on the treatise by Bhaṭṭaswāmi. The translation of certain extracts published by Mr. Shamasastry in the *Indian Antiquary* for 1905 attracted attention, and enabled me to make valuable additions to the second edition of this history, published in 1908. Two other MSS. of the *Śāstra* were then found in the Münich Library, and another seems to exist in Calcutta.