A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c9.92

c9.92

∗ The reference is to the oft-quoted attack of Bāṇa who says in his Kādambarī (Peterson's edition, Vol. 1, p. 109) "Is there anything that is righteous to those for whom the science of Kauṭilya, merciless in its precepts, rich in cruelty, is an authority; whose teachers are priests habitually hard-hearted with practice of witchcraft; to whom ministers always inclined to deceive others are councillors, whose desire is always for the goddess of wealth that has been cast away by thousands of kings; who are devoted to the application of destructive sciences; and to whom, brothers affectionate with natural cordial love, are fit victims to be murdered?" (Shamasastry's translation, English translation of Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra, Introduction, p. ix). The Jaina Nandisūtras (quoted Ibid p. xxii) include the Kauṭilīya in the list of false sciences.