The Arthasastra

The Arthasastra of Kautilya is traditionally believed to have been written in the fourth century bce by Canakya, identified as a minister of Candragupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty.

The source of the livelihood (vritti) of men is wealth (artha), in other words, the earth inhabited by human beings. The science which is the means of the acquisi­tion and protection of the earth is arthasastra.^[575]

Recent scholarship has investigated the extent to which the Arthasastra represents a Mauryan period document and has shown that its association with the Mauryan state dates to the early centuries of the Common Era, perhaps after the second cen­tury ce. The early version of the Arthasastra was composed in prose, which un­derwent significant redaction in the early centuries of the Common Era.^[576] In the Introduction to the most recent translation of the Arthasastra, Patrick Olivelle corroborates the view expressed earlier that no clear distinction is made in the text between the wealth of the king and that of the government, as the king did not merely rule, but also made money.

The first five books of the Arthasastra deal with internal administration, while the remaining part is devoted to foreign affairs. The term amatya or official/min- ister is applied to various high-ranking persons, while another title (i.e., that of mahamatra), which also occurs in the edicts of Asoka, is translated as “high offi­cial.” A small group of advisors formed the core group around the king. An impor­tant official was the dharmastha, translated by Olivelle as “one in-charge of dispute resolution.”^[578] The largest number of officials are termed heads of departments or agencies. The royal scribe receives special mention and is responsible for drafting royal correspondence.

The longest and most interesting of the 15 books of the Arthasastra is Book Two, which deals with the “Duties of Overseers,” or the heads of different departments and trade routes. Trade activity figures prominently in this discussion. It would seem that at the time of the Arthasastra, long-distance trade was organized differently from local trade and was conducted by different groups of traders. Long-distance traders brought goods in bulk to the gate of the city, where they were bought by local traders to sell at retail. The city gate was the site at which the wholesalers and the retailers met and transacted business. It was also the place at which the king imposed taxes in the form of customs fees (Arthasastra II.21.7-11, 13). The king's officials were directed to punish traders (and also enrich the treasury) for any at­tempt to evade taxes through fraud. Punishments were severe and a fine of eight times the duty was levied for attempted evasion. In addition, secret agents were em­ployed to keep a watchful eye on merchants and, should they falsely declare the quantity of their goods, the excess amount was confiscated. The Arthasastra lists several exemptions in the case of goods required for religious rituals and ceremo­nies.

The terms nigama and negama are found inscribed on unbaked clay sealings from several sites in North India. The earliest of these date to the Mauryan period.^[579] The Pali dictionary derives the meaning of the term nigama from the Sanskrit root gama, or village, with the prefix ni. The compound term thus has the sense of coming together or meeting. On the basis of early Buddhist texts, Narendra Wagle defined the nigama as a gama composed of more or less integrated members of var­ious kin groups and occupational groups. It is therefore a larger and more com­plex economic and social unit than the village or gama. Another related, though distinct, term is the negama—that is, an assembly of persons connected with the nigama. The association of the term with cities like Rajagrha and Sravasti has led to the suggestion that it indicated a ward in a city.^[580] Beyond the northern plains, there are references to the nigama in inscriptions from early Buddhist sites in pen­insular India. The nigama continued to be associated with urban centers in the post-Mauryan period. Several seals found at Bhita near Allahabad bear the legend nigamasa, or “of the nigama,” in Brahmi script dated to the early centuries of the Common Era, perhaps representing the authority of some autonomous urban administration.^[581]

The attempt in this chapter has been to focus on developments in archaeology, philology, and epigraphy in the past 300 years, which have enabled scholars to excavate a history of the Mauryan Empire, which was otherwise mostly a distant religious memory. This history provides the background for the continued emula­tion of Asoka as a model of kingship to subsequent kings and kingdoms in India, well into the present. This was not lost on the men and women who framed the Constitution for post-independence India.

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