Current Readings in Arthasastra

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About the Book The papers collected in this volume, originally presented at the International Seminar held at Calicut University, update the perceptions on Arthasastra, the archetypal work on Indian polity. Here Sanskritists, historians and anthropologists approach the text from different angles using multidisciplinary tools of interpretation. Arthasastra is analysed in its historical and cultural setting and thus perspectivised in this book which represents a quantum leap in the study of the seminar classic.

Dr. C. Rajendran, Professor of Sanskrit and Dean of Language and Literature, University of Calicut is a scholar of international repute. Author of twenty books and about two hundred articles, he received Ramakrishna Sanskrit Award instituted by Canadian World Education Foundation for outstanding contribution to Teaching and Research. He has also served as visiting Professor in Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale, Paris (2005) and Jageillonian University, Krakow, Poland (2008).

Preface This Felicitation Volume is in honour of Professor N.V.P Unithiri, who retired from the service of the University after the distinguished service of about three decades. Professor Unithiri joined the department in 1978 and during his long association with the department, he has made significant contributions in evolving it as a vibrant centre of study and research. It was he who initiated the steps for bringing out a number of publications under Calicut University Sanskrit Series and introducing several Innovative programmes. He is one of the few academicians who loved to perform his manifold activities with gusto and his enthusiasm has always been contagious.

The present volume is the proceedings of an International Seminar on Arthasästra conducted by me and my colleagues on October 18-19, 2005. The seminar became a venue for the discussion of Arthasästra, the seminal text of ancient Indian polity from a multidisciplinary perspective and it was our singular fortune that we could ensure the participation of distinguished scholars like Francis Zimmermann, M.G.S. Narayanan, M.R. Raghava Varier, K.N. Ganesh, Rajan Gurukkal, and Veluttat Kesavan, apart from veteran and young Sanskrit scholars, to make it a memorable event. The seminar validated one basic assumption of us: justice can be done to works like Arthasästra only when they are studied by various scholars drawn from disciplines as diverse as Sanskrit, textual criticism, history, anthropology, economics, and political science.

**Contents and Sample Pages**