Society, State and Law in Ancient India

Kautiliya’s Arthasastra is a Sanskrit treatise dealing with diplomacy and military strategy. It also describes life at the royalcourts, systems of administration and finance, legal procedures, judicial investigation and trial. The present book is devoted to a detailed analysis of the Arthasastra and mainly deals with its Chapter 3 which contains most important material on Indian law and society. In Chapter 1, which includes a short review of Arthasastra studies, the authors concern themselves with the problems of the origin of the Arthasastra tradition, connections between the Arthasastra and Dharamasastra literatures, as well as with specific features of the legal material in the Arthasastra. In Chapter 2 the authors offer new interpretations of some difficult passages in this compendium on political science.