Public Administration in Ancient India c4.42

c4.42

¹ Kautilya has sometimes been compared to Machiavelli. But this comparison does not seem to be a very happy one. There is no doubt that both these great writers wrote for the guidance of princes, and that both favoured a subordination of ethical principles to considerations of expediency. But the points of similarity do not extend any further. In intellectual acumen and in comprehensiveness of outlook, Kautilya far surpasses his Italian rival. Moreover, the Hindu author was also a practical statesman of the first rank to whose guidance and advice Chandragupta owed the foundation and consolidation of a pan-Indian Empire; while the practical experience of the Florentine diplomat was limited to a few years' service in a subordinate department of the State. Lastly, Kautilya's political ideas continued to be accepted by many generations of kings and statesmen as safe guides in their work of actual administration, but Machiavelli's Prince and other works were valued merely as abstract treatises and never influenced to any considerable extent the current of political events. If any European politician can be compared to Chānakya, it is Bismarck.