The Mauryan Polity c12.9

c12.9

"This text-book has been composed by him, who quickly and impatiently raised the *Arthaśāstra* (from former imperfect text-books) passed his sword and took the earth that had passed to the Nandas¹ (out of their hands)." We can have it translated thus: "This treatise was written by him by whom the Śāstras (not necessarily the *Arthaśāstra*), the science of weapons and the earth that had passed to the Nanda kings were soon and in jealous anger raised aloft." According to V. A. Smith the Nanda king who was deposed and slain by Candragupta was of low caste and a heretic hostile to the Brahmanas and the Kṣatriyas.² He further remarks that "the nine Nandas were considered to be unholy persons unworthy of inclusion in orthodox Hindu annals". Then it is clear that during the period of the Nandas that both the *śāstras* of the Brahmanical science and the *śastra* or the Kṣatriya science, were in a