Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra Book

This study presents a new interpretation of the comparison of Kautilya's "Arthasastra" to the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Machiavelli. According to this author, neither Kautilya nor Machiavelli is a -Machiavellian- in the conventional sense of the term. At the same time, Kautilya is not a -bigger man- than Machiavelli, as most Indian scholars would like to believe, nor is Kautilya a philosopher in the sense that Plato and Aristotle are. Yet Kautilya's fame rests squarely on the fact that his vision of a righteous state guided by "dharma" is shared by Plato, Aristotle, and even Machiavelli."