Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c4.18

c4.18

**Age of *Arthaśāstra.*** Of the above authorities, there is a controversy regarding the *Arthaśāstra* as a document of Maurya history. Professor F. W. Thomas holds the view [*Cambridge History of India*, I. p. 467] that the date of the work “clearly falls within or near the Maurya period.” This was the view taken earlier by scholars like the late Dr. Vincent A. Smith in his *Early History of India*, Dr. H. Jacobi, and Dr. K. P. Jayaswal. This view is followed in this work. It will be seen from the contents and details of the work that, whatever might be the time of its composition in its present form, it is a picture of early conditions applicable to Mauryan India. As F. W. Thomas further points out [*Ib.* p. 474]: “Concerning the condition and organisation of the vast Maurya empire, the Greeks have provided us with a considerable body of valuable information: and, as the *Arthaśāstra* furnishes the means of describing the complete polity existing at the time, its land system, its fiscal system, its law, its social system, with some view of literature and religion, we shall not forego the opportunity, so rare in Indian history—we must wait for the time of Akbar and the *Ain-i-Akbari*—of dwelling a little on the picture.”