Kautilya's Arthashashtra

Book Review - Kautilya's Arthashashtra

Kautilya, popularly known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta was a master stretegist of the Second Century A.D. He is regarded as one of the greatest teacher of state-craft - wisdom in the management of public affairs. He is known for his genius and foresight and also for his knowledge of vedas and puranas.
Kautilya's Arthashashtra (by Penguin Publications) is the reconciliation of the original Arthashashtra which has been edited, rearranged and translated by L. N. Rangrajan.
The book has been divided into 10 chapters and deals with all the facets of leading a state from an emperor's point of view. Its gives a broad view of how a kingdom or state was lead by a King and his ministers. As i went through the book i attained a completely different view of our history as compared to the old school history books, which i consider to be completely irrelevant. The book has a compilation of different aspects of statecraft which includes - Responsibilities of  the King, his Behavior towards his subjects, Law and Order, Foreign policy, War and Defense, Taxation, Departments of Government. The views presented by Chanakya are strong and at times ambiguous. He has given exhaustive list of a possible scenarios for a number of cases. For an example he gave an exhaustive list for how a King can attack his enemy or how can an enemy be conciliated. I differ with Kautilya here because its not possible to give an exhaustive or complete list for such practical cases as every case is different in itself. However, i believe, the practical knowledge that he has imparted here in his work is of great use in present world. The author has also compared Kautilya's theories with other strategists here.  
After reading this book i realized how little we have changed since then. We have come so far yet the basics have remained just the same and will remain so. Some examples of similarities is the taxations syatem and governance, rules and regulations, trade and commerce and punishments etc.
All in all, the book is for those people who have interest in Indian statecraft and are looking for wisdom. It is surely not for those who are looking for a casual read.
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating : 7.5/10