Computation in the Arthaśāstra

Mark McClish*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya (ca. first century BCE-third century CE) is the most important source on state administration from classical India. Its far-ranging instructions on state activities depict an ideal-typical kingdom heavily reliant on computation, particularly with respect to state finances. Nevertheless, computational practices themselves are little discussed, and no general study of them in the Arthaśāstra yet exists. This chapter is a primarily philological effort to frame an initial inquiry into such practices in the text through a study of the terms through which computation is expressed or implied. After introducing the Arthaśāstra, I examine: 1. various means of assigning value as laid out in the text (including an overview of mensuration in the Arthaśāstra); 2. some of the most prevalent numerical operations and procedures; 3. the use of these in a few examples of state activities; and 4. how computation was conceived among other evaluative activities.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWhy the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages81-124
Number of pages44
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Publication series

NameWhy the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter
Volume5
ISSN (Print)2662-9933
ISSN (Electronic)2662-9941

Funding

1The date of the Arthaśāstra has been the subject of disagreement since its rediscovery in the early twentieth century. I have proposed (McClish 2009, 2019) an extended compositional history of the text in which an original compilation was substantively redacted to bring the text more or less to its extant form. The original recension to the text was probably composed in the first century The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 269804.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • History and Philosophy of Science

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