Summary
Contents
Subject index
Revisiting the Political Thought of Ancient India: Pre-Kautilyan Arthashastra Tradition rediscovers the political ideas of the original and celebrated schools of thought in ancient India—early Arthashastra and Pre-Kautilyan traditions. This book throws light on hitherto not very well-known aspects of political ideas in ancient India, which flourished during the 5th and 4th centuries before Christ. Kautilya's Arthashastra is a major text on ancient Indian political thought, wherein he cited views of a number of Arthashastra teachers who had written on political science. Unfortunately, their writings are not available today; only their views are found scattered in different texts. This book brings together these views to prepare a coherent account of their political ideas and reconstructs the pre-Kautilyan Arthashastra tradition with the help of available sources.
Introduction
Introduction
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 1810.1 The basic principles, theories and concepts of ancient Indian political thought were developed by the Arthashastra thinkers who flourished before the establishment of the Mauryan empire. Kautilya's Arthashastra is the best specimen of the Arthashastra tradition. Kautilya wrote, ‘This single (treatise on the) science of politics has been prepared mostly by bringing together the teachings of as many treatises on the science of politics as have been composed by ancient teachers for ...
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