Download Chapter-10 Summary and Main Conclusion

Chapter-10
Summary and Main Conclusion
10.1. Summary
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10.2. Main Conclusion
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10.3. Achievement of The Objectives
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10.4. Testing of Hypotheses
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10.5. Limitations of The Study
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10.1 Summary
Kautilya is the greatest person with wisdom and knowledge. He
is considered the pioneer in the field of Economics. His foresight and wide
knowledge combined with political economics expediency helped found
Mauryan Empire. He was a key advisor and councilor of Chandragupta
Maurya, the founder of Mauryan Empire. Kautilya was chief architect of
his rise to power so he is called kingmaker too. A man full of vision; he
was always prepared for the worst. He had the guts to speak his heart out
even in front of the rulers. He himself lived such a life, refusing all
adornments, compassion towards the poor and evil to deceit when needed
which shows some of his good characteristics of nature. Kautilya reminds
us that he is not just history but he created history. His life, teaching and
works will continue to guide us and inspire to follow him.
Kautilya collected his lifelong work in Arthāŝastra. Kautilya is
traditionally known as the author of Arthāŝastra. It means “Science of
Politics”. This Sanskrit classic was written in the end of the 4 th century
B.C. The Arthāŝastra was believed to have been lost more than 1400 years
and it was known through only references and word, from it in subsequent
works in politics in Sanskrit. In 1905, one Brahmin who was from Tanjore
district of South India gave a hand written work of „Kautilya‟s
Arthāŝastra‟ as a gift to Mysore government. At that time, in library R.
Shamashastri was a chairman. He studied it carefully and introduced it.
Thus it was rediscovered in 1905 and published in 1909 in Sanskrit and
the first English translation with critics of Bhattaswamy in 1915 by R.
Shamashatri in Mysore and immediately it caused reaction large
discussion on the nature of its contents and their effect for understanding
the traditional Indian polity. The book is divided in 15 Adhikarnas and 180
Prakarnas. It is divided into 15 parts and it contains 6000 hymns (shlokas)
which is an inclusive manual on a method of a state to be ruled and
administrated by a king. Now many English translations are available.
Kautilya is political realist and gives effect of being amoral. The
Arthāŝastra is an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, political economics
and military strategy. Kautilya envisioned that a system of government
must be spread, efficient, skilled and honest. The king is the middle point
of vast empire and Kautilya‟s strong desire to him is to be the guard at all
times. It also reveals growth of Indian rulers during the Pre- Gupta
period. Kautilya‟s book came to be the guide for Chandragupta.
Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra is a book of political realism, a book of analyzing
how the political world does work and not very often stating how it ought
to work, a book that frequently measures; he must carry out to preserve
the state and common good. Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of
the Mauryan Empire in India. He is credited with bringing together the
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small fragmented kingdom of the country and combining them into a
single large empire. A major part of the credit for building of Maurya
Empire goes to Kautilya. Kautilya was the key advisor and the genius of
the strategy undertaken by the Chandragupta, who defeated Nanda kings,
stopped the advance of Alexander. Kautilya was responsible for this so he
called king maker. He was the chief advisor and councilor of
Chandragupta. Kautilya did not start any new system of governance, but
he began a new direction in political thought by giving to the world what
we called realism. We know him “The First Political Realist”. Kautilya
influenced later social changes in India. Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra was a
science of politics intended to teach Chandragupta Maurya how to govern.
In this work Kautilya guided wide ranging and truly fascinating
discussions on various fields related to the king. More than eight-tenths of
the Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra is devoted to explaining the internal working of
the state and what can be done to improve it. The Mauryan Empire
established by Chandragupta and continued by his son Bindusara (293268 B.C.E.) whom also Kautilya advised and by his grandson Ashoka
(268-232 B.C.E.) was, and still is astonishing with a population of fifty
million people, the Mauryan Empire was larger than Mughal Empire 2000
years later and even larger than the British Empire in India, extending
in fact all the way to the border of Persia and from Afghanistan to
Bengal. Thus Kautilya‟s progressive secularization of the state and society
prepared the country for the great moral transformation brought in by
king Ashoka who was the third king of Mauryan Empire. He is regarded
as the most glorious of all Mauryan rulers. He brought social changes
which he believed had a great impact on the politics of the country.
Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra is known for the way of financial management and
economic governance. Thus we say, even Chandragupta Maurya needed
someone like Kautilya to guide him in shaping his administration.
Chandragupta never did anything to achieve without Kautilya.”
This trend toward formalization has continued and
accelerated, even as the behaviorist revolution has subsided. At the same
time, because of the interdependence of all social life, Kautilya‟s
Arthāŝastra also moved towards a closer working relationship with other
disciplines, especially sociology, political science, history, anthropology,
psychology, public administration, law, and statistics without losing its
own identity. Over the past generations, the discipline placed an
increasing emphasis on relevance and the use of new approaches to
increase scientific knowledge in the field and provide explanations for
empirical outcomes. Because all Sciences are essentially a study of human
behavior, in all aspects of life, observations in controlled environments are
often challenging to reproduce or duplicate, though experimental methods
are increasingly common.
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Contemporary Relevance of Economic Thoughts of Kautilya
There are numerous relationships between economics and
political science. Political science is concerned with the state, government,
agencies, etc. Economics has to do with the system. Basically Kautilya‟s
Arthāŝastra is in form of Politics so it is connected with the politics. As A.
K. Shah (1981) has convincingly shown in the case of Kautilya‟s
Arthāŝastra, the four goals of life made sense only in their interrelation;
when separated from each other, the pursuit of pleasure (kama) was
bound to degenerate into lust, the striving for achievement (artha) into
greed, just as virtue (dharma) could turn into mechanical ritual and
salvation (moksha) into a form of escapism (see also 1996). It was only in
later periods that this harmonious relation fell apart and gave way to
conflict. Parel attributes this decay mainly to the so-called “renouncer”
(sramana) movements which elevated moksha above all else and even
made dharma less accessible. As he writes: “In Buddhism, as in ascetic
Brahminism and Jainism, artha and kama came to be marginalized to the
point of being treated as negative values”—adding: “The radical
separation of moksha and nirvana from the other purusharthas had had
disastrous consequences for Indian civilization taken as a whole.” Against
this background, Gandhi emerges as a major figure—perhaps the major
figure—struggling against past decay and restoring harmony to the goals
of life: “He belongs to the group of forward-looking thinkers who want to
explore new ways in which the theory of the purusharthas might be made
to work.” Having overcome the older “sramana” ways, what comes into
view is a “new Gandhian paradigm” postulating “the coordinated pursuit
of all the purusharthas”. The social sciences comprise the application of
scientific methods to the study of the human aspects of the world.
Psychology studies the human mind and micro-level (or individual)
behavior; sociology examines human society; political science studies the
governing of groups and countries; communication studies the flow of
discourse via various media; economics concerns itself with the production
and allocation of wealth in society; and social work is the application of
social scientific knowledge in society. Social sciences diverge from the
humanities in that many in the social sciences emphasize the scientific
method or other rigorous standards of evidence in the study of humanity.
In the Indian philosophy, the objective of every being is the pursuit of
dharma. State, a human artifact, is constituted to get the human race out
of the state of nature. State enables the citizens to follow their respective
dharma and to enjoy private property rights. King is viewed as a protector
of dharma, but not the sole interpreter of it. There is separation between
secular and ecclesiastical power. State has many autonomous associations
and guilds in its jurisdiction and the ensuing polycentric arrangements
checks the rise of absolute power. Arthāŝastra visualizes a huge
bureaucratic structure, a complex tax structure, and an intricate
intelligence system. Thus Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra is related with political
science, social science, ethics and theology.
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Contemporary Relevance of Economic Thoughts of Kautilya
The Arthāŝastra divides the economy of the state into three
basic types of the activities- agriculture, cattle rearing and trade. The
governance structures then projected the potentialities of centralized
administration, but having adjusted to the socio economic patterns and
differentiations. Urban administration had its hierarchy of officers,
supporting supervision of production and exchange in urban centers,
presumably to control revenues. The state, even those days, exhibited a
closely controlled and orderly financial accounting system. The chancellor
was responsible for collecting revenue from the whole country, along with
his delegates, the Governor Generals in each city. Significantly, Kautilya
was concerned, at least to some extent with accountability. Kautilya
identified quality of governance, human exertion, accumulation of
physical capital, acquisition of land, and knowledge as the sources of
economic prosperity. Two points are noteworthy. First, according to
Kautilya, most of the tax revenue should be used to the provision of
infrastructure. He wrote, “The [total] salary [bill] of the State shall be
determined in accordance with the capacity [to pay] of the city and the
countryside and shall be [about] one quarter of the revenue of the State.”
Kautilya wrote, “A king who observes his duty of protecting his people
justly and according to law will go to heaven, whereas one who does not
protect them or inflicts unjust punishment will not. It is the power of
punishment alone, when exercised impartially in proportion to the guilt,
and irrespective of whether the person punished is the King‟s son or an
enemy, that protects this world and the next.” As such, the Arthāŝastra
provides extensive coverage on the overall economy, which includes:
infrastructure (roadwork, irrigation, forestry, and fortification), weights
and measurements, labour and employment, commerce and trade,
commodities and agriculture, land use and property laws, money and
coinage, interest rates and loan markets, tariffs and taxes, and government
expenditures and the treasury.
Economic problems create most difficulties and dangerous
situation in the entire world. The economic problems are very challenging.
There isn‟t any country where economic problems have not been existing.
For the solution of economic problems, sciences and scriptures of the
entire world study in their different methods. When the study in
Economics is occurred, there is inclusion of resistive factors of economic
development, the problems of developing countries just like, inequality of
income, poverty etc. Many problems are prevailed in today which are not
given by economists so we cannot solve these problems like in economic
policy, plans in economic program. At present time the problems of LPG
are more serious, but we cannot get solution of LPG by modern
Economics. Mainstream economics is totally failed to solve these problems
which are prevailed in today. Mainstream Economics is just like partial
economics contributed by classical economists to modern economists. Each
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Contemporary Relevance of Economic Thoughts of Kautilya
economist has contributed in the context of their time period. So there is
no permanent Economics at all.
Modern Economics is basically
Economics for developed country so it is not useful in developing country.
Mainstream Economics is the most theoretical Economics and its theory is
not applicable to each country. Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra has ability to
become mainstream economics as a global economics which has capacity
to solve all types of problems for all types of countries. We can get all the
solutions of our difficulties not only in present time but also in future. Not
only national level, but also abroad it is very helpful to solve economic
problems.
10.2
Main Conclusion
Main Conclusion of the study can be mentioned as under.
1.
Kautilya is India's most illustrious political economist of all time.
2.
Kautilya was a true statesman who bridged the gap between experience
and vision.
3.
Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra is concerned with all the sciences.
4.
Kautilian Economics is permanent which is ever time useful and
important.
5.
Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra has ability to become mainstream economics as a
global economics which has capacity to solve all types of problems for all
types of countries.
6.
Kautilian Economics is 100% practical and applicable for every nation.
7.
Kautilian economic thoughts are superior to modern economists.
8.
Kautilian economic thoughts are relevant for present day society.
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10.3 Achievement of The Objectives
The main achievement objectives of the study can be mentioned
as under.
1.
We can examine Kautilya‟s thinking about Arthāŝastra.
2.
We can compare thoughts of modern thinkers and Kautilya.
3.
We can identify the solutions of present problems from Kautilya‟s
Arthāŝastra.
4.
We can examine the superiority of Kautilian Economics in the context of
modern economics.
10.4
Testing of Hypotheses
In order to get the objectives of the study, the following
hypotheses had been formulated. And hypotheses are correct at the end of
the study.
1.
Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra is very relevant for present day society.
2.
In Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra, there are ready made solutions for specific
problems which are prevailed today.
3.
Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra is applied economics because it was written by
Kautilya for Chandragupta.
4.
Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra contains truths which transcend the boundaries
of time and space.
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10.5
Limitations of The Study
There are following limitations in presented study.
1.
It is too difficult to get the concern literature due to limited study on this
subject of Kautilya‟s Arthāŝastra.
2.
It was necessary to take support of other people who are in the field of
education so collecting information was not happened fast due to lack of
time by this people.
3.
It is difficult to translate Kautilya‟s book because language of Kautilya‟s
books is “Sanskrit”.
4.
This research is based on only secondary information data, for this it
affects errors and unconformity of concern study.
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