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Kautilya: Foreign Policy and International System in the Ancient Hindu World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

George Modelski
George Modelski
Affiliation:
The Australian National University
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Extract

Kautilya is believed to have been Chanakya, a Brahmin who served as Chief Minister to Chandragupta (321–296 B.C.), the founder of the Mauryan Empire. Chandragupta gained his first successes, soon after the death of Alexander the Great, in campaigns against some of the satraps the Macedonian conqueror had established west of the Indus. He then turned against the Nanda Empire and succeeded in destroying it. The victory over the Nandas and his subsequent conquests gave him control over a large part of the Indian subcontinent, including the Ganges and Indus valleys and parts of the Deccan.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , September 1964 , pp. 549 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1964

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References

1 Kane, P. V., History of Dharmasastra (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1930–1946), Vol. I, pp. 85–104Google Scholar; Macdonell, A. A., India's Past (Oxford: Clarendon 1927), pp. 168–70Google Scholar.

2 The fourth edition of that translation, Kautilya's Arthasastra, tr. Shamasastry, R. (Mysore, 1951)Google Scholar, is the source of quotations in this paper and page citations refer to it too. However, the translation of a number of Sanskrit terms has on occasion been altered in the light of other commentaries, or else the Sanskrit term itself has been used. Two other English translations of Kautilya's work, Jolly-Schmidt's (Lahore, 1923–4) and Ganapati Sastri's (Trivandrum, 1924–5) were unfortunately not available at the time of writing this paper.

3 In addition to works cited elsewhere in this paper the following have been found useful, and are relevant to the international relations aspects of Kautilya's, treatise: Weber, Max, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism (Glencoe, Ill., 1958)Google Scholar; Nag, Kalidas, Les Theories Diplomatiques de L'Inde Ancienne et L'Arthasastra (Paris: Maisonneuve Freres, 1923)Google Scholar; Law, N. N., Inter-State Relations in Ancient India (London, 1920)Google Scholar; Rao, M. V. Krishna, Studies in Kautilya (Delhi: Munshi Ram Manohar Lai, 1958)Google Scholar; Wilhelm, Friedrich, Politische Polemiken ira Staatslehrbuch des Kautalya (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1960)Google Scholar; Chakravarti, P. C., The Art of War in Ancient India (Dacca, 1941)Google Scholar; Majumdar, R. C., ed., The Age of Imperial Unity (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951)Google Scholar.

4 Shamasastry, op. cit., p. 287.

5 For an extensive discussion and review of literature on the angas see Kane, op. cit., Vol. III, chs. 1–10.

6 Ibid., p. 291.

7 Ibid., p. 293.

8 Ibid., Shamasastry's term for sandhi is ‘peace’; this seems not precise enough.

9 Ibid., pp. 299–300; this is only an example; other writers use different lists and classifications; see also Kane, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 224.

10 For a graphic account of the mandala see i.a. Bozeman, AddaPolitics and Culture in International History (Princeton University Press 1960) pp. 122–3Google Scholar.

11 Shamasastry, op. cit., pp. 307, 295, 297, 358.

12 See in particular, ibid., pp. 298, 340, 385, 344–5.

13 For the concept of an agrarian International system see Modelski, George, “Agraria and Industrial Two Models of the International System,” World Politics, Vol. 14 (October, 1961), pp. 118–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Shamasastry, op. cit., pp. 289, 367, 437, 10.

15 Ibid., p. 368.

16 Ibid., p. 302.

17 See also Rocher, Ludo, “The Ambassador in Ancient India,” Indian Yearbook of International Affairs (Madras), Vol. 7 (1958), pp. 344–60Google Scholar.

18 Shamasastry, op. cit., p. 283; see also p. 10.

19 Ibid., pp. 283–5.

20 See e.g., Kane, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 72 ff; Law, N. N., Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity (Oxford: Clarendon, 1921), p. 161 ffGoogle Scholar. However, Goshal, V. N. (in Studies in Indian History and Culture, Calcutta: Orient Longmans, 1957, p. 318)Google Scholar, suggests that the king's ally (janyamitra—friend from a foreign country) may have had a part in the central portion of the Rajasuya ceremony.

21 Shamasastry, op. cit., p. 7.

22 Ibid., pp. 30, 15–19; see also Shamasastry, R., Evolution of Indian Polity (Calcutta, 1920), pp. 126–8Google Scholar. For the diplomatic functions of the Purohita (the royal priest) see Law, op. cit., p. 48.

23 Shamasastry tr., op. cit., p. 341.

24 Ibid., pp. 344–5 in particular.

25 For a discussion of royal ranks see, however, Law, op. cit., p. 12 ff; Kane, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 63 ff. A late work, the Sukranitisara has an ingenious system whereby rulers are graded into eight classes according to their income.

26 Kane, op. cit., Vol. III, pp. 65–72; Ruben, W., “Inter-state Relations in Ancient India and Kautalya's Arthasastra,” Indian Yearbook of International Affairs, Vol. IV (1955), pp. 137–59Google Scholar; Sinha, H. N., Sovereignty in Ancient Indian Polity: A Study in the Evolution of Early Indian State (London: Luzac, 1938), pp. 258–63Google Scholar; for a different view see Derrett, Duncan, “The Maintenance of Peace in the Hindu World: Practice and Theory,” Indian Yearbook of International Affairs, Vol. VII (1958), pp. 361–87Google Scholar.

27 Shamasastry, op. cit., p. 411.

28 Law, op. cit., pp. 18–19, 181–91; there is no mention of it in Kautilya.

29 Shamasastry, op. cit., p. 339.

30 “Caste and Territory in Malabar,” American Anthropologist, Vol. 56 (June, 1954), p. 410CrossRefGoogle Scholar.