[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Mauryan Polity](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932) › c5.s2.t7 # The Mauryan Polity c5.s2.t7: Evidence of the Pañcatantra The Mauryan Polity c5.s2.t7 - **Language:** English ### Evidence of the Pañcatantra ### [c5.s2.t7.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.1) A number of passages can be quoted from the Pañcatantra where explicit references are made to Kauṭalya and his Śāstra.² In a recent Annual Report (1927) of the Mysore Archæological Department the question of the date of the Kauṭalīya Arthaśāstra has been re-opened and an endeavour is made to reaffirm the generally accepted date of the work 350 to 300 B.C.³ It is generally agreed that the stories in the Pañcatantra⁴ are based upon the political maxims propounded in the Kauṭalīya. The Report referred to above says: "The titles, such as separation of friends, winning of friends, war and peace, the loss of one's acquisition and hasty action, given to the five books of the Pañcatantra are political ideas explained in no work earlier than the Arthaśāstra." Again there is reason to believe that the author of the Pañcatantra is indebted to the Arthaśāstra for the use of the word prakṛti in the technical sense of sovereigns to be considered in time of war.⁵ The interpretation of the term in this sense is Kauṭalya's own coining (svasaṃjñā). ### [c5.s2.t7.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.2) ² Arthaśāstrāṇi cāṇakyādīni —Bk. I.1. sa auśanasabārhaspatya cāṇakyamatavittadanuṣṭhātā| ### [c5.s2.t7.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.3) ³ See p. 15 ff. ### [c5.s2.t7.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.4) ⁴ Ed. by J. Hertel and Dr. F. Edgerton. ### [c5.s2.t7.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.5) ⁵ mitraprakṛti and ariprakṛti (Ar. Śās., Bk. VIII, ch. 2; Tantrayukti, Bk. XV, Ch. I. ### [c5.s2.t7.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.6) The author of the \*Pañcatantra\* uses again the very words of Kauṭalya when dealing with the objects of \*lokayātrā\*.¹ ### [c5.s2.t7.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.7) ¹ P. 1.1. ### [c5.s2.t7.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.8) This is not all. Some more passages are borrowed from different portions of the \*Arthaśāstra\*. According to Hertel the Kashmirian recension of the \*Pañcatantra\* which bears the title \*Tantrākhyāyikā\* dates from about 200 B.C. It can be presumed that the \*Arthaśāstra\* which is repeatedly quoted must have been very familiar for a good number of years before the \*Pañcatantra\*. At the least an interval of a century would not be too high. Even Prof. Keith concedes that "it is however perfectly possible that the \*Arthaśāstra\* is an early work and that it may be assigned to the first century B.C. while its matter very probably is older by a good deal than that."² ### [c5.s2.t7.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7.9) ² J.R.A.S., 1916, p. 137. ## Linked texts (2) - [Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.artha.kautilya.1.1) — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit - [Pañcatantra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.short_stories.pancatantra.1.1) — Viṣṇuśarman, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.dikshitar-1932.c5.s2.t7) · Pramāṇa