Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c19.2

c19.2

The purpose of this Appendix is to bring together the parallel passages in the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya and the Inscriptions of Asoka so as to show to what extent they throw light upon each other, and may be considered as contemporary documents. The resemblance between the observations of Megasthenes and Kauṭilya has been worked out thoroughly to prove or to disprove that they were contemporaries, but the resemblance beween Kauṭilya's work and Asoka's Inscriptions waits to be worked out for the same purpose. The resemblance extends both to words and ideas, to technical terms as well as to institutions peculiar to Mauryan polity. It may be set out as follows: