Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c8.3.1

c8.3.1

**Territory.** Of these, Kauṭilya duly emphasises the importance of the territorial basis of the State upon which its progress and future so much depend. First of all, Kauṭilya [IX. 1] gives utterance to his innate sense of patriotism and love of country by stating that “of the whole world, the northern part of the country which stretches from the Himalayas up to the seas (*Himavatsamudrāntaramudīchīnaṁ*) is marked out as the natural sphere of imperialism” (*Chakravartikshetram*). Here Kauṭilya is evidently thinking of the empire already established by Chandragupta in northern India by his overthrow of Greek rule in the Punjab, of Nanda empire of Magadha, and his rule over Surāshṭra in western India. This country is rich in its economic resources and potentialities, in its abundance of all varieties of land, cultivated (*grāmya*), uncultivated (*āraṇya*), forests, highlands (*pārvata*), well-watered lands (*audaka*), dry land (*bhauma*), stretches of even land (*sama*), and undulating land (*vishama*), so as to give scope to the growth of every kind of agricultural produce, both wet crops and dry crops. India to this day remains pre-eminently the land of agriculture, with its capacity for economic self-sufficiency depending upon its variety of climates so as to make India an 'epitome of the world.' In another passage [VII.