The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c11.s8.2

c11.s8.2

In regard to the second question, namely that about the authorship, likewise, nothing conclusive has yet been advanced to prove that Kauṭalya, the minister of Chandragupta Maurya, is the author of the *Arthaśāstra* in the form in which we have it. But, on the other hand, it is possible to argue strongly against its being *entirely* the work of one man and to suspect that somebody who is not Kauṭalya the minister himself has had a hand in its preparation. Although Kauṭalyan and Maurya in the main, the *Arthaśāstra* has therefore to be regarded as a compilation in the making of which a non-Kauṭalyan hand has to be admitted. These non-Kauṭalyan traces are separate from the eventual interpolations of words or phrases that may have crept in subsequently. The non-Kauṭalyan hand is to be seen in the substantial portions or main *corpus* of the work itself. We are speaking of the man who virtually "made" Kauṭalya and started the tradition about him.