A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c12.s2.6

c12.s2.6

Śukra applies to his own work the title (Nītisāra) that was used by Kāmandaka as the designation of his treatise. His conception of the science, however, is somewhat different from that of the older writer. To him Nītiśāstra is much more than the Art of Government in the stereotyped monarchic State. Thus it is significant that while Kāmandaka addresses himself specifically to the kings,† Śukra introduces his work by stating in a general fashion that it has been written for the benefit of kings and others whose span of life is too short to permit the study of the archetype of Nītiśāstra prepared by the god Brahmā.‡