The Mauryan Polity c5.s3.1

c5.s3.1

So much has been written both on points of similarity and points of dissimilarity between Megasthenes' Fragments and the *Kauṭalīya Arthaśāstra*. Every scholar who has had to deal with the Mauryan period or with the *Arthaśāstra* has not failed to refer to the fragments of Megasthenes. A notable endeavour in this direction is by Otto Stein who has examined the whole question in his book *Megasthenes und Kauṭalya* and has essayed not with much success to establish the thesis that Kauṭalya the author of the *Arthaśāstra* could not have been a contemporary of Megasthenes. In the introduction Stein writes: "The aim of this work is as far as possible to give all the corresponding items between the two and compare them in details. It is however difficult to find out an objective view-point for the order of the passages which have been compared, because we are concerned with works of different nature. In the one we have a collection of geographical and ethnographical fragments. In the other we have a text-book about administration including home and foreign policy. Besides one cannot include topographical, mythological, and even pseudo-historical statements. A comparison in the order of fragments would lead an an external view-point which is unpractical for our present purpose.”¹