The History of the Arthasastra: Sovereignty and Sacred Law in Ancient India

ISBN-13: 9781108701747 / Angielski / Miękka / 2020 / 307 str.

Illinois) Mark McClish (Northwestern University

Opis

The Arthasastra is the foundational text of Indic political thought. By analyzing its early history, Mark McClish overturns prevailing beliefs that ancient India was governed by religion and shows that this text originally espoused a political philosophy characterized by empiricism and pragmatism, ignoring the sacred mandate of dharma altogether.

Spis treści

1. Introduction; 2. Arthaśāstra historiography; 3. The resegmentation of the Arthaśāstra; 4. Citation and attribution; 5. The deep structure of the text; 6. The history of the Arthaśāstra; 7. The politics of the Daṇḍanīti; 8. Varṇadharma in the Arthaśāstra; 9. Statecraft, law, and religion in ancient India; Appendices.