A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8.s3.41

c8.s3.41

Arthaśāstra, then, while strictly meaning the art of public administration, tends in effect to include the theory of the State as well. Let us next consider the scope of this science. A perusal of Kauṭilya's work shows that this author treated the subjects of central and local administration, home and foreign policy, as well as civil law and the art of warfare. As Kauṭilya's work is admittedly a summary of the early Arthaśāstra literature, the natural presumption is that the same topics were dealt with in either case. This is reduced to a certainty by Kauṭilya's own citations which make it abundantly clear that all the above subjects were treated by his predecessors.∗