Ashok S. Chousalkar - Revisiting the Political Thought of Ancient India: Pre-Kautilyan Arthashastra Tradition

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Contents

Kautilya, in the Arthashastra , stated that the book on the science of politics had been prepared by consulting many treatises on the science composed by earlier teachers. He had cited views of these teachers as well as schools. But, unfortunately, these treatises are not available today. Views of these teachers are cited by other ancient texts as well. These texts formed the core of political thought in ancient India. As rightly pointed out by N. Palmer, apart from the dominant tradition of western political thought, ancient Indian political thought is the second important political tradition.

In this book, we aim to revisit political thought in ancient India with the help of the account of political thought of early Arthashastra tradition, because in the later period, political thought in ancient India was dominated by Dharmashastra tradition. As against conservatism of the Dharmashastra tradition, the pre-Kautilyan Arthashastra presented a radical alternative which was influenced by the Lokayata philosophy. The tradition believed in rationalism and freedom of individual will. It opposed the performance of costly sacrifices and asked kings to develop agriculture, trade and cattle breeding. It also held that only with the help of human efforts, life on the earth could be improved.

I am thankful to my daughter Rita for taking keen interest in the publication of this book. This book is developed out of the major research project granted to me by the UGC, for which I am thankful to them. I am also thankful to Professor N. J. Pawar, the Vice-Chancellor of Shivaji University, for providing me necessary facilities. I thank the librarians of the Shivaji University Library, Kolhapur; University of Mumbai Library; and the Library of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, for their assistance. I am also thankful to Mr Pandurang Bhoye, Dr Nilkanth Lokhande, Mr Kishor Khilare, Mr Nagnath Chobe, Dr Suryakant Gaikwad and Mr Sachin Bhosale for their help.

I thank SAGE for agreeing to publish this book.

Ancient Indian political thought is one of the important traditions of political thought, and barring the dominant Western political thought, it is the most creative and developed political thought. It originated in the 5th century BC , and the last book on it was written by Mr Malhar Ramrao Chitnis in 1810.

The science of politics originated in ancient India during the pre-Mauryan period. It had been subsequently developed by the Vedic, Buddhist and Jaina traditions. The purpose of this research is to study the origin of science of politics in India as well as to discuss the nature of political thought of pre-Kautilyan Arthashastra tradition.

In ancient India, the science of politics was called Dandaniti or science of using rod for punishment. Arthashastra is the other famous name given to it. Apart from these names, it was called Kshatravidya , Rajshastra-Rajaniti , Nitishastra and Nitisara . Of these names, Kshatravidya , Dandaniti and Arthashastra were more ancient names, and the word niti became more prominent after the 1st century ad , as all the subsequent works on polity written by Kamandaka, Somadeva Suri, Chandeshvara and Shukra used the word niti instead of Arthashastra .

The Arthashastra was a comprehensive science which dealt with different aspects of policies of the state. While defining Arthashastra , Kautilya wrote, The source of livelihood of men is wealth, in other words, the earth inhabited by men. The science which is the means of the attainment and protection of the earth is science of politics. Kautilya, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Manusmriti , the Kamandakiya Nitisara , the Mudra Rakshasa , the Dashkumar Charitam and Buddha Charita also mentioned these thinkers. Thus, there is an agreement among the scholars that there existed a number of Arthashastra thinkers in ancient India during the pre-Mauryan period. Many of these thinkers had composed their books on politics, and Kautilya and especially the Mahabharata quoted the gatha s or verses and discourses from these books. However, unfortunately, except the Arthashastra of Kautilya, all these works have now disappeared. Hence, progressive and vibrant discipline of political science had not been developed during the later half of the first millennium of the Christian era. Even the Arthashastra was not available earlier, and its manuscript was discovered in Kerala only in 1907.