Jain Thought and Culture

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 49

The Riddle of Chanakya and Kautilya
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bet ween the composition of two such cognate productions" 16 Had there been no tradition making Kautilya a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya, Jolly's conclusion would had found widespread support We should not forget that the dates of a large number of ancient Indian works depend upon even less conclusive evidence Actually, according to a tradition recorded by Hemachandra, Vatsyayana and Kautilya were the names of the same person 17 No corroborative evidence for it is so far available but in view of the evidence discussed above it can hardly be denied that Kautilya and Vatsyayana must have been contemporaries or near contemporaries And as in his Kamasutra Vatsyayana refers to the Arthasastra of Brihaspati and not of Kautilya, it may be presumed that Kautılıya Arthasastra, came into existence after the composition of the work of Vatsyayana Now, the date of Vatsyayana is not definitely known but in view of the fact that he has made a reference to Kuntala Satakarnı, he is generally placed in the third century The Arthasastra of Kautilya, may, therefore, be placed in the same general period Internal Evidence
Now let us discuss the internal evidence Firstly, as has been rightly pointed out by RS Sharma 18 and others, the administrative organisation outlined by Kautilya is different from the system revealed by Asokan inscriptions The typical Asokan officials such as the mahamatra, rajuka, pradesika, prativedaka etc are rerely, if at all, mentioned in the Arthasastra On the other hand, many fiscal and administrative terms such as bhoga, vishti, pranaya and parihara and official titles like sannidhata and samaharta mentioned in the Arthasastra are not known to the Asokan records, they occur for the first time in the Saka and Satavahana inscriptions of the early centuries of the Christian era The term 'skandhavara,' (military camp) also occupies the same prominent place in BK I of the Arthasastra as it does in the Satavahana and the Gupta inscriptions
The history of the official title 'mahamatra' may render us greater help in determining the date of the Arthasastra than it has been realized so far Several classes of mahamatras are known to the early Pali literature Employed in different categories as mantris,
16 Jolly, op cit 17 Mookerji, RK, op cit, p Xlll-TIY 18 Sharma, RS, op cit, p. 191