Books and writing
Arthashastra: The Science of Material Gain (1909)
Mysore Oriental Library (first printed edition). The treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya. It has 15 books, 150 chapters and 180 topics in about 5,300 sentences. It covers the training of a prince, ministers, departments, law, war and foreign policy. Olivelle dates its layers from about 150 BCE to 300 CE. Max Weber wrote in 1919 that by comparison Machiavelli’s The Prince “is harmless”.
Wikipedia: Arthashastra · Encyclopaedia Britannica: Chanakya · Dr S. Srikanta Sastri archive: R. Shamasastry · Motilal Banarsidass: R. P. Kangle, The Kautiliya Arthasastra
Kautilya’s Arthashastra: Translated by R. Shamasastry (1915)
Government Press, Bangalore. The first full English translation by the librarian who identified the manuscript. An introduction by Dr Fleet opened it. A second edition followed in 1923. The 1915 edition is free to read online.
Internet Archive: Kautilya’s Arthashastra, trans. R. Shamasastry (1915) · Dr S. Srikanta Sastri archive: R. Shamasastry · Fordham Internet Indian History Sourcebook: Kautilya (Shamasastry, 1923)
The Kautiliya Arthasastra: Text, translation and study by R. P. Kangle (1965)
University of Bombay. A critical edition in three parts. Part 1 is the Sanskrit text from all available manuscripts. Part 2 is an annotated English translation. Part 3 studies authorship, date, economy, law and foreign policy. Motilal Banarsidass keeps it in print. Kangle argued there is “no convincing reason” to deny the work to Kautilya.
Motilal Banarsidass: R. P. Kangle, The Kautiliya Arthasastra · Wikipedia: Arthashastra
The Arthashastra: Edited, rearranged and translated by L. N. Rangarajan (1992)
Penguin Books India. A reader’s edition that regroups the text by subject. It draws on the Shamasastry and Kangle versions. It runs to 868 pages.
Library catalogue: Rangarajan, The Arthashastra (Penguin, 1992) · MP-IDSA Strategic Analysis: Pinak Chakravarty (2014)
King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya’s Arthasastra (2013)
Oxford University Press. Patrick Olivelle’s new annotated translation in 784 pages. It rests on his theory of how the text was composed in stages. He called it the most difficult translation he had attempted. Wendy Doniger’s endorsement called the translation “transparent, clean, devoid of jargon”.
INDOLOGY list: Olivelle’s Arthasastra announced (14 December 2012) · Wikipedia: Arthashastra
Chanakya Niti: Verses on Life and Living (2020)
Penguin Random House India. A selection from the aphorisms attributed to Chanakya, translated from Sanskrit by the diplomat A. N. D. Haksar. About half come from the Chanakya Niti Darpana. The rest come from five other compilations.
Business Standard / PTI (15 February 2020) · Wikipedia: Chanakyaniti
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