BHU Lecture Nov

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National Seminar on R.Shamasastry: New Dimensions in Indian

History(centenarary year of the discovery of Kautilyas Arthashastra)

November 8-10, 2011

Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology,

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

I am grateful to the organizers of this great Seminar, particularly to

Professor Sitaram Dube, to have invited me to deliver this inaugural

address. As the Organizers wish to appreciate his personality and

contributions to Indological studies including Arthashastra, they have

proposed to discuss the following aspects:

Life and Personality of R. Shamasastry.

Arthashastra-Text and Translation.

Further Studies on the Arhashastra.

His concept of History and Methodology

Jyotish and Eras.

Palaeography and Epigraphy.

Indian Epics.

Classical Sanskrit Literature.

Textual Crtiticism

Centenary of Arthasastras publicationR Shamasastry: Discoverer of Kautilya's ArthasastraBy Prof. AV Narasimha Murthy

The Maharaja of Mysore wanted to celebrate the golden jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen Victoria in 1891and built a little beauty and named it Victoria Jubilee Institute. The building is a rare blend of classicalEuropean, Gothic, Corinthian and Romanesque architectural elements. Subsequently, the walls of thisbuilding were adorned by Hoysala sculptures brought from a destroyed Hoysala temple. There are somebeautiful inscriptions in front of the building which give a heritage ambience to the structure.

The building used to house thousands of rare palm leaf manuscripts and was called Mysore Oriental Libraryand now it is called Oriental Research Institute (ORI) and is a part of Mysore University. Queen Victoria isforgotten but this Research Institute is famous all over the world because it was here the first manuscript ofKautilyas Arthasastra was discovered.

Around 1905 there was a librarian by name Rudrapatnam Shamasastry (1868-1944) who hailed from thecelebrated village Rudrapatna on the banks of Kaveri, famous for Karnatak music. He belonged to theSanketi Brahmin community and by 37 he had mastered Vedas, Vedanga, classical Sanskrit, Prakrit,English, Kannada, German, French and other languages. He had also learnt the various ancient scripts ofIndia.

As the librarian, he daily examinied each manuscript to know its contents. It was not an easy task either.Most of the palm leaf manuscripts were fragile and to handle them was a big problem. This routineexamination continued day-by-day, month-after-month and even after years, without great success. ButShamasastry was hopeful of finding out some new spectacular manuscript which was not known to the

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world. His assistants always taunted him but unmindful of all these, Sastry continued his work with alldevotion and sincerity.

One fine morning in 1905, he picked up a palm leaf manuscript from a heap. He examined this palm leaf andwas pleasantly surprised to know that it was a work on Arthasastra or administration written by an authorcalled Kautilya, Chanakya or Vishnugupta before the dawn of Christian era. Some people thought that itmust have been a hoax; others looked at this with suspicion. But the introduction written by Shamasastry in

1909 giving the details of the author and its authenticity convinced that it was a genuine literary wonder ofthe ancient world.

Fleet (London), Jolly (Germany), Winternitz (Germany), Thomas (London), Pelliot (France), Keith, StenKonow and a host of others congratulated Shamasastry for heralding a new era in Indian administration. RKMukherji, Ashutosh Mukherji, BC, Law, CR Reddy and other Indian scholars paid handsome tribute toShamasastry. Rabindranath Tagore specially expressed his happiness on this occasion. Thus Shamasastryovernight became a celebrity not only in India but all over the world in academic circles. The book wastranslated into French, German and many other languages.

Awards and recognitions followed immediately after its publication in 1909. Washington University (USA)awarded a doctorate; Royal Asiatic Society awarded its Fellowship. He was awarded Campbell gold medal.Calcutta University also gave him a doctorate and invited him to deliver a series of lectures on Arthasastra.Mysore University appointed him Professor of History.

Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV gave the title Arthasastra Visharada; the Government of India made him aMahamahopadhyaya. Varanasi Sanskrit Mandali gave him the title Vidyalankara and Panditaraja. Most ofthe Oriental institutes in and outside the country invited him to visit their institutions and accept their honour.Unmindful of all these encomiums, Sastry continued his research work on many knotty Indological problemsand as Director of Archaeology of Mysore State published many annual reports and discovered manyinscriptions on stone and copper plates.

A rare incident which throws light on his illustrious personality may be recounted here. Krishnaraja WadiyarIV once visited Germany and was invited to address a meeting in a club. The Maharaja was introduced tothe guests as His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore State. After the address by His Highness, a Germangentleman came near the Maharaja and asked, Your Majesty, are you the Maharaja of Mysore where livesDr. Shamasastry, the discoverer of Arthasastra? The Maharaja was pleasantly surprised that Shamasastryof Mysore was well known in the far-off Germany.

He felt proud of this great scholar and after his return he called Sastry and said, In Mysore we are the

Maharaja and you are our subject, but in Germany, you are the master and people recognise us by yourname and fame.

Highly religious and simple in habits, always ready to help the younger scholars, Shamasastry gave self-respect to Indians in the matter of Indian administration. European scholars had always argued that ancientIndians learnt the art of administration from the Greeks with the contact from Alexander. But Shamasastryhas falsified this idea and showed to the world the contributions of Kautilya which even the Mughals andBritish adopted in India. Today we salute Dr. Shamasastry on the centenary of the publication of KautilyasArthasastra.

(The writer is former Head, Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore.)

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The Oriental Research Institute (ORI), set up in 1891 by the then maharaja ofMysore, is a magnificent heritage building, blendingarchitectural styles such as Gothic, Corinthian andRomanesque, and housing nearly 60,000 palm-leaf

manuscripts from antiquity.

What brought fame to the institute, however, wasthe discovery among them ofKautilyasArthashastra some 100 years ago. Amanuscript of the treatise on politics andgovernance, believed to have been written circa 4thcentury BC, was found and identified byRudrapatna Shamashastry, a refined scholar of Sanskrit who was the librarian andlater the curator of the institute.

Shamashastry came across the work in a heap of manuscripts he was goingthrough. This was in 1905. But it was 1909 by the time he transcribed, edited and

published the Sanskrit edition, making the current year the centenary of hislandmark publication. He then painstakingly rendered the work into English,

publishing it to astounding ovation in 1915, by which time excerpts had already madeappearances in journals like Indian Antiquityand Mysore Review, preparing Indologists across theworld for the watershed appearance of the English edition.

All the fame of the work and its discovery, however, do not seem to have inspired enoughenthusiasm for careful preservation. Instead of a safe or a weatherproof glass case, themanuscript is brought out for viewing, after much persuasion, from an unlocked steel cupboard inthe directors office. A wrapping of red cloth, and a spray of preservative citronyl oil, is all theprotection the manuscript gets. Prof Jaganath, an expert in manuscriptology at the ORI, puts it allin perspective. Dont expect an autograph of Chanakya on these palm leaves, he says. This isperhaps only a recopy of a recopy made some 500-600 years ago. It was with a pandit in

Tanjore, who handed it over to the institute not knowing what was written on it. Other suchrecopies were found elsewhere in India, but that was later, after our discovery. He explains thatmanuscript is in Sanskrit, but written out in the Grantha script, not Devanagiri. Since the Tamilscript couldnt accommodate certain sounds from Sanskrit, Grantha was created to allow for therepresentation of those sounds in a script accessible to those who know Tamil.

At Asutosh, the house of Shamashastry in the Chamundipuram locality of Mysore, theres noelectricity supply, but his portrait is illuminated by torchlight and brought down enthusiastically byhis great grandson to be photographed. And the daughter-in-law explains that the house isnamed for the legendary Sir Asutosh Mookerjee of Calcutta University, who encouraged myfather-in-law a great deal and also visited our house when it was built. Family members bring outreprints of Shamashastrys other books and ask, Do you think the university or the governmentwill celebrate the centenary year?

Until it wasidentified from amanuscript byShamashastry,Chanakyas opuswas know only fromreferences.

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The manuscript is presrved using citronyl oil

F.W. Thomas, then the librarian of the India Office Library in London, had this to say about thework at the time of its English publication: I can testify to the great value of the work, whichsheds more light upon the realities of ancient India, especially as concerns administration, law,trade, war and peace, than any text we possess.... Vincent Smith, the author of the History of

Ancient India, in the preface to the second edition of his book, makes this acknowledgement in1913: The description of the Maurya empire and administration...has been revised with specialregard to the discovery and partial publication by Mr R. Shamashastry of the ancient treatise onthe art of government, ascribed to Chanakya or Kautilya, the minister of Chandragupta Maurya.Several such revisions of history writing followed. Indologist J.F. Fleet, who wrote an introductionto the English edition, was generous in his praise of Shamashastry: We are, and shall alwaysremain, under a great obligation to him for a most important addition to our means of studying thegeneral history of ancient India.

The fame ofArthashastra and Shamashastry was so widespread that Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV,the then maharaja of Mysore, had a strange encounter in Germany. At a party, he apparently raninto the vice-chancellor of a German university and introduced himself, whereupon he was askedif he was from the land of Shamashastry. M.S. Srinivas, Shamashastrys son, now in his eighties,says, The maharaja was so overwhelmed that on his return to Mysore, he invited my father andfelicitated him. He also had the large-heartedness to say, In Mysore, Im the king and you are mysubject, but in the rest of the world, Im known only through you. Accolades followed. In August1919, the Oriental University, Washington DC, conferred a honorary doctorate on Shamashastry.Calcutta University followed suit in 1921; the same year, he was admitted to the Royal Asiatic

Society and won the Campbell Memorial gold medal.

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Legend & legacy: Shamashastry's son M.S. Srinivas at the family home

There is also a record of Rabindranath Tagore complimenting Shamashastry. In 1927, MahatmaGandhi met him in Nandi Hills. Prof A.V. Narasimha Murthy, a retired professor of ancient history,paraphrases the conversation, as recorded by Mahadev Desai, the Mahatmas secretary:Shastry told Gandhiji, Sir, in the ancient days, there used to be guides like Patanjali,Hemachandra, Vidyaranya and others. Rulers today dont have such an advantage. You shouldlead the country towards morality. Gandhiji smiled and said, Who will bell the cat? My orientationis slightly different; the minds of our people have to be rectified first.

Asked how the ORI proposes to celebrate the centenary year of the publication ofArthashastra,Devaki says, We should do something and we will certainly do something, but then I am steppingdown as director soon. My successor will make all the plans. But Prof Jaganath says the bestway to commemorate the event is to study properly the several commentaries that have been

written on theArthashastra after the 12th century. The manuscript discovered by Shamashastryalso carried a commentary on a small part by a writer named Bhattasvamin.

The Mysore University, under whose jurisdiction the ORI comes, was given a Rs 100-crore grantin the 2008 Union budget. Perhaps it should set aside a small sum to commemorate thediscovery of this great work. At present, it is only the Kautilya Circle, a roundabout onRadhakrishnan Avenue, that serves as a reminder of Mysores great tryst with classicaldiscovery.

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Of Scholars and Kings

Of Scholars and Kings

Chanakya or Koutilya is credited with authorship of Arthashatra, an authoritative text on

polity and statecraft. Over centuries, smritis or codes on similar subjects quoted Koutilya

profusely, but the original text was long lost.

When R. Shamashastry who was the librarian of Oriental Library in Mysore found a copyof the sanskir text of Arthashatra in a palm-leaf book, edited, and brought out an English

version in 1909, it created waves in the western world. Till then Machiavelli's "Prince"

(15th century ) was considered a master-piece on state-craft. But here was a manual forrunning the state efficiently in all the branches, legislature, executive, and judiciary,

written hundreds of years earlier! Arthashastra also gave importance to military science.

Acquisition of wealth, and its management which we now call in narrow sense ofartha,had prime importance to include polity. Hence the work is called Arthashastra.

According to ancient Indian texts, among four human goals to be

achieved dharma, artha,kama, and moksha, artha is next only to dharma or virtuous

living the other two being desire, and liberation). It only shows that acquiring wealth andits efficient management was most important both for the individual and the state.

Arthashastra in wider sense includes niti (polity),danda (administration) and management

of resources and its constant seeking (anvikshana).

Kautilya was the prime-minister of emperorChandragupta Maurya who was the

grandfather ofAshoka the great. He rules in the fourth century B.C. Arthashatra asconceived by Kautilya thus stands for acquisition of state wealth, its protection besides

overall governance of a region or state. Considering that Mauryan empire included thevast Indian subcontinent including present day Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan,

Kautilya's vision of a welfare state is admirable. Such a vast region could be controlled

by only an efficiently run military force with central system of governance with due

powers to local self-governed agencies, suited contemporary India.

Very soon, Arthashastra was translated into French, German, and other European

languages. It began to be discussed avidly in learned assemblies. An interesting event

happened during the visit of Narasimharaja Wodeyar, the prince of Mysore in Western

Europe. At a party befitting the royal dignitary, several well known scholarsand indologists were invited. When the prince was introduced to a German scholar, he

exclaimed, "You are from Mysore? The great Shamashastry's kingdom?" The royal

member nodded with dignity, unaware of the immense popularity the discoverer ofArthashastra had enjoyed abroad.

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Upon his return to Mysore, the prince arranged for a public felicitation for

R.Shamasastry, and the great scholar was honored. The price rightly lived up to the

adage:

"Royalty and learning can never be compared. The king is revered only in his country.

The scholar is revered everywhere"

R. ShamasastryFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudrapatnam Shamasastry (18681944) was a Sanskritscholar and librarian at

the Oriental Research Institute Mysorewho is known for discovering and publishing

the Arthashastra, an ancient Indiantreatiseon statecraft, economic policy

and military strategy.

Contents

[hide]

1 Early life

2 The discovery

3 Awards

4 Recognition in Germany

5 Later life

6 Notes

7 External links

[edit]Early life

Shamasastry was born in 1868 in Rudrapatna, a village on the banks of the Kaveri

riverin Karnataka, to a Sankethi Brahmin family. He "had mastered Vedas,

Vedanga, classical Sanskrit, Prakrit, English, Kannada, German, French and other

languages."[1]

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[edit]The discovery

The Oriental Research Institute was set up in 1891, as the Mysore Oriental Library. It

housed thousands ofSanskritpalm-leaf manuscripts. Shamasastry, the librarian,

examined these fragile manuscripts daily, to determine their contentsand cataloguethem.[1]

In 1905 he discovered the Arthashastra among a heap of manuscripts. He

transcribed, edited and published the Sanskrit edition in 1909. He proceeded to

translate it into English, publishing it in 1915.[2]

The manuscript was in the Grantha script. Other copies of the Arthashastra were

discovered later in other parts of India.

It was one of the manuscripts in the library that had been handed over by 'a pandit of

the Tanjore district' to the Oriental Library.[3]

Until this discovery, the Arthashastra was known only through references to it in

works byDandin, Bana, Vishnusarma, Mallinathasuri,Megasthenes, etc. This

discovery was "an epoch-making event in the history of the study of ancient

Indian polity".[4]It altered the perception of ancient India and changed the course of

history studies, notably the false belief of European scholars at the time that Indians

learnt the art of administration from the Greeks.[1]

The book was translated into French, German and many other languages.[1]

[edit]Awards

The discovery was hailed over the world by IndologistsandOrientalists such

as Julius Jolly, Moriz Winternitz, F. W. Thomas, Paul Pelliot,A. Berriedale Keith,

Sten Konow and others.[1]J. F. Fleet wrote of Shamasastry: "We are, and shall

always remain, under a great obligation to him for a most important addition to our

means of studying the general history of ancient India."[2]

In India, it was acclaimed by Ashutosh Mukherjee, Rabindranath Tagore, and others.

Shamasastry also met Mahatma Gandhiin 1927 at Nandi Hills.[2]The discovery

brought international fame tothe institute.[5]

Shamasastry was awarded a doctorate in 1919 from the Oriental University

in Washington D.C.and in 1921 from the Calcutta University. He was made a Fellow

of the Royal Asiatic Societyand won the Campbell Memorial gold medal.

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He was appointed as Professor of History at Mysore University.

Several titles were also conferred on him, includingArthasastra Visharada by the

Maharaja of Mysore, Mahamahopadhyaya by the Government of India,

and Vidyalankara and Panditaraja by the Varanasi Sanskrit Mandali.

[edit]Recognition in Germany

An often-told anecdote involves the visit of the then-king of Mysore, Krishna Raja

Wadiyar IV, to Germany. When introduced as the king of Mysore, he was asked by

the vice-chancellor of a German university whether he was from the Mysore of

Shamasastry. On his return, the king honoured Shamasastry and said "In Mysore we

are the Maharaja and you are our subject, but in Germany, you are the master and

people recognise us by your name and fame."[1][2]

[edit]Later life

Shamasastry continued his research work on Indological problems.[1] He later

became the curator of the institute.[2]As Director of Archaeology of Mysore State, he

discovered many inscriptions on stone and copper plates.[1]

His house 'Asutosh', in the Chamundipuram locality of Mysore, was named after

SirAshutosh Mukherjee. As of 2009, he is survived by his son, M.S. Srinivas, who is

in his eighties.[2]

[edit]Notes

1. ^ abcdefghProf. AV Narasimha Murthy (June 21, 2009),"R Shamasastry: Discoverer of

Kautilya's Arthasastra",The Organiser

2. ^ abcdefSugata Srinivasaraju (27 July 2009),"Year Of The Guru",Outlook India

3. ^ Richard Mattessich (2000), The beginnings of accounting and accounting thought:

accounting practice in the Middle East (8000 B.C. to 2000 B.C.) and accounting thought in India

(300 B.C. and the Middle Ages), Taylor & Francis, p. 146,ISBN9780815334453

4. ^ Ram Sharan Sharma (2009),Aspects of political ideas and institutions in ancient

India (4 ed.), Motilal Banarsidass Publ., p. 4,ISBN9788120808270

5. ^ abA monumental heritage, The Hindu, October 27, 2001.

[edit]

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S U N D A Y , A P R I L 3 , 2 0 1 1

The Man Who Retrieved Kautilya

The above article on Dr. Rudrapatnam Shamashastry has been written in connection with

the Centenary Celebrations of the

release of the book " Kautilya's Artthashastra" written and published by by Dr.

R.SHAMASHASTRY in 1909 at Mysore

It may be recalled that though the book was written by Kautilya [ also known as Chanakya]

2,400 years back, the book was not known to the

world till 1909 when it was first discovered on palmleaf manuscripts in 1904 in the Oriental

Library, Mysore and subsequently published

by Dr.R. Shamashastry in 1909. The year 2009 is the Centenary Year of its publication.

B.M.N.Murthy, 4th July 2009

Dr. R. Shamashastry of Mysore [1868-1944]

--Discoverer of Kautilyas Arthashastra

Till about the dawn of the 20 the Century there was a misconception in the Western world that

in ancient India everything was moved by otherworldly considerations and that the society was

ignorant of statecraft, social affairs and administration. If there was one turning point work

which removed this misconception, it was the discovery of Kautilyas book Arthashastra in

Sanskrit which, though written 2,400 years earlier, was discovered as late as the 20th century.

The singular credit for discovering this rare and monumental manuscript goes to Dr.

Rudrapatnam Shamashastry of Mysore who not only discovered the manuscript but heralded a

new era in Indian Administration and Statecraft.

Turning the pages of the History of Ancient India pertaining to the 4th Century B. C., we

observe that it was Kautilya, also known as Vishnugupta or as Chanakya, who overthrew the

ruling Nanda Dynasty and placed the great Chandragupta Maurya of the Maurya Dynasty on the

throne of India. Kautilya was a student of the Taxila University [then called Takshashila and

now in Pakistan] which was the very first University to be founded in the world as early as 700

B.C. He later taught in the same University for about four years. It was this Kautilya who wrotethe Arthashastra which is a monumental Treatise on Administration and Civic Affairs. This

work, according to research scholars, must have been written sometime between 321-296 B.C.

It is a comprehensive treatise giving practical guide and advice not only on running

governmental organizations but also a work that deals with subjects like duties of kings,

ministers, local officials, methods of diplomacy etc including ways and means of defeating an

enemy. Coverage of its subjects is encyclopedic and many scholars have wondered how it was

possible for One small head to carry all he knew [to borrow and use Oliver Goldsmiths

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expression in his poem The Village School Master] Normally such a treatise involves the united

efforts of a syndicate of writers.

Among the several Libraries and Research Institutions in the country which preserve rare palm

leaf manuscripts, the Mysore Oriental Library [now called the Oriental Research Institute] is

one of the most famous libraries in India .In 1891 the then Maharaja of Mysore State wanted to

celebrate the golden jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen Victorias accession to the British throne

in a grand style and for this purpose got up a beautiful Building built with a lovely blend of

classical architectural styles and named it Victoria Jubilee Institute. This is the same building

in which the Oriental Library has been functioning for more than a century .It was here that

the manuscript of Kautilyas Arthashastra was first discovered. This library had a librarian by

name Rudrapatnam Shamashastry during 1905. Shastry hailed from a place known as

Rudrapatnam on the banks of river Kaveri and was born in a Sankethi Brahmin family and in a

community l known for Vedic learning. This is the same place wherefrom several of present

classical Carnatic music vidwans of Karnataka come from. Even at a young age Shastry showed

a remarkable skill in learning the Vedas, the Upanishads and other sacred lore. Before he was

forty, he had mastered most of the Vedas, the Vedangas, Classical Sanskrit, German, French

and a few more foreign languages. In addition, he had learnt how to decipher several oriental

scripts.

Shastry was a devoted and sincere librarian in the Oriental Library who put his heart and soul

to the job. Even though the job of dealing with ancient manuscripts, most of which were in

torn conditions and quite dusty, was difficult, risky and monotonous, he was dedicated to his

job and took pleasure in doing it.. One day, sometime in 1905, he picked up some palm leaf

manuscripts and on detailed observation and examination, he was pleasantly surprised to

discover that it was the work Arthashastra written by Kautilya. Shastry examined the

manuscript very closely, examining it from several angles and was finally convinced that it was

the genuine work of Kautilya. In an introduction to the book written by him in 1909, Shastry

says that he was convinced beyond doubt that it was a genuine work of Kautilya, a literarywonder of the ancient world. It did not take much for the new discovery to get publicized.

Rudrapatnam Shamashastry became a celebrity all over the world. Scholars and academicians

all over the world started congratulating him for having ushered in a new era in Indian

Administration and Statecraft by discovering Kautilyas Arthashastra. Eminent educations and

historians of those days literally vied with each other in inviting Shamashastry to their

Universities, honouring him and getting the benefit of the new discovery. Shastry also met

Mahatma Gandhi in 1927 when he was camping at the Nandi Hills and presented him with a

copy of Arthashastra. Gandhiji was immensely pleased with his rare contribution to Indian

Polity and congratulated him.. Rabindranath Tagore was all praise for the new discovery. The

Washington University awarded a Doctorate to Shastry and the Royal Asiatic Society awarded

its Fellowship to Shastry. The Government of India gave him the title Mahamahopadhyaya, arare and coveted honour in those days for Oriental scholars.

Dr. Asutosh Mukherji, the greatest educationist of India in the 20th century and five times Vice

Chancellor of the Calcutta University, invited Shamashastry to Calcutta in 1919 under the

auspices of the Calcutta University to deliver a series of ten lectures. Shastry delivered these

lectures on subjects connected with Arthashastra under the title

Evolution of Indian Polity. These lectures were subsequently published in Mysore under the

title Kautilyas Arthashastra, with an introduction by the eminent British Historian J.F.Fleet.

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In his concluding remarks, Fleet says We are, and shall always remain, under a great

obligation to Shamashastry for the most important addition to our means of studying the

general history of ancient India.

His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore once visited Germany for delivering a talk at the invitation

of a German institution. At the meeting he was introduced as His Highness the Maharaja of

Mysore State. After the lecture was over, a German gentleman approached His Highness and

asked him Your Majesty, are you the Maharaja of Mysore where lives Dr. Shamashastry, the

discoverer of Arthashastra? The Maharaja was pleasantly pleased that one of his own subjects

was well-known in far off Germany. On his return, he sent for Dr.Shamashastry and said In

Mysore State we are the Maharaja and you are the subject. But in Germany, you are the Master

and people recognize us by Your name and fame. The Maharaja awarded him with the title

Arthashastra Visharada during the Dasara Celebrations of 1926.

Shastry who passed away in 1944 was an extremely simple man with deep religious habits.

Humility was his hallmark and he was always ready to help youngsters to come up in life.

Western scholars had always argued that ancient India had learnt the art of administration

from the Greeks ever since they came into contact with Greeks with the invasion of Alexander.

But Shamashastry proved them wrong with his discovery of Arthashastra and showed how even

the British had adopted some of the features contained in the Arthashastra for their

administration.

On the occasion of the Centenary Year [2009] of the publication of Kautilyas Arthashastra, let

us salute this great discoverer of the 20th century, Dr. Rudrapatnam Shamashastry!

B.M.N.Murthy

ARTICLE NO. 507 --- Dr. R. Shamashastry,Discoverer of Kautilya's 'ARTHASHSTRA"

Created: Friday, July 3, 2009 7:08 PM

R. Shamashastry the scholar who discovered

Arthashastra

-B.M.N. Murthy

Till about the dawn of the 20th century

there was a misconception in the Western

world that everything in ancient India wasmoved by otherworldly considerations, the

society ignorant of statecraft, social affairs

and administration. The turning point which

removed this misconception, was the

discovery of Kautilyas Arthashastra in

Sanskrit. Though written 2,400 years

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earlier, the classic work was discovered as

late as the 20

th

century.

The singular credit for this discovery goes

to Dr Rudrapatnam Shamashastry of

Mysore who not only discovered the

manuscript but heralded a new era in Indian

administration and statecraft.

The history of ancient India pertaining to

the 4

th

century BC, shows that it was

Kautilya, also known as Vishnugupta or

Chanakya, who overthrew the ruling Nandadynasty and annointed Chandragupta Maurya as the King. Kautilya

was a student of the

Taxila University (then called Takshashila and now in Pakistan), the

very first university

to be founded in the world as early as in 700 B.C. He later taught in the

same university

for about four years.

It was this Kautilya who wrote Arthashastra which is a monumental

treatise onadministration and civic affairs. This comprehensive work, must have

been written some

time between 321296 BC.

It is a practical guide not only on running governmental organisations

but also a work

that deals with duties of Kings, Ministers, local officials, methods of

diplomacy etc

including ways and means of defeating an enemy. Encyclopedic in its

coverage many

scholars have wondered how one head could carry such a vastknowledge.

Among the libraries and research institutions in the country which

preserve rare palm leaf

manuscripts, the Mysore Oriental Library (now called the Oriental

Research Institute) is

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well-known.In 1891 the then Maharaja of Mysore State wanted to

celebrate the golden jubilee of Her

Majesty the Queen Victorias accession to the British throne in a grand

style and got a

beautiful building built with a blend of classical architectural styles and

named it Victoria

Jubilee Institute. This is the same building in which the Oriental

Library has been

functioning for more than a century. It was here that the manuscript of

Kautilyas

Arthashastra was first discovered.

This library had a librarian named

Rudrapatnam Shamashastry during 1905.

Shastry hailed from a place known as

Rudrapatnam on the banks of River Kaveriand was born in a Sankethi Brahmin family

and in a community known for Vedic

learning.

Even at a young age, Shastry showed a

remarkable skill in learning the Vedas, the

Upanishads and other sacred lore. Before he

was forty, he had mastered most of the

Vedas, the Vedangas, Classical Sanskrit,

German, French and a few more foreignlanguages.

In addition, he had learnt how to decipher

several Oriental scripts. Shastry was a

devoted and sincere librarian in the Oriental

Library. Even though the job of dealing

with ancient manuscripts, most of which in

torn conditions and quite dusty, was difficult, risky and monotonous, he

was dedicated to

his job and took pleasure in his work. One day, sometime in 1905, he

picked up somepalm leaf manuscripts and on keen examination,

was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was Arthashastra of

Kautilya. Examining it

from several angles, Shastry was convinced that it was a genuine work

of Kautilya.

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In his introduction to the book written in 1909, Shastry says that he was

convinced

beyond doubt that Kautilyas genuine work was a literary classic of the

ancient world. It

did not take long for the discovery to get publicity. Rudrapatnam

Shamashastry became a

celebrity. Scholars and academicians the world over started

congratulating him for having

ushered in a new era in Indian administration and statecraft by

discovering Kautilyas

masterpiece. Eminent educationists and historians of the day literally

vied with each other

in inviting Shamashastry to their universities, honouring him and

getting the benefit of

the new discovery.Shamashastry met Mahatma Gandhi in 1927 when he was camping at

the Nandi Hills and

presented him with a copy of Arthashastra. Gandhiji was immensely

pleased with his

rare contribution to Indian polity and congratulated him. Rabindranath

Tagore was all praise for the new discovery. The Washington University

awarded a Doctorate to Shastry

and the Royal Asiatic Society its Fellowship. The Government of India

gave him the titleMahamahopadhyaya , a rare and coveted honour to an Oriental

scholar.

Dr Asutosh Mukherji, the renowned educationist of the 20

th

century and five times Vice

Chancellor of the Calcutta University, invited Shamashastry to deliver a

series of ten

lectures in 1919 under the auspices of the Calcutta University. These

lectures under the

title Evolution of Indian Polity, were subsequently published inMysore

under the title, Kautilyas Arthashastra, with an introduction by

British Historian J.F.

Fleet. Fleet says: We are, and shall always remain, under a great

obligation to

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Shamashastry for the most importantaddition to our means of studying

the General

History of ancient India.

The Maharaja of Mysore once visited Germany for delivering a talk at

the invitation of a

German institution. After the lecture, a German gentleman approached

His Highness and

asked Your Majesty, are you the Maharaja of Mysore where lives Dr

Shamashastry, the

discoverer of Arthashastra? The Maharaja was pleasantly pleased that

one of his own

subjects was well-known in far off Germany.

On his return, he sent for Dr Shamashastry and said: In Mysore State

we are the

Maharaja and you are the subject. But in Germany, you are the Masterand people

recognise us by Your name and fame. The Maharaja awarded him

with the title,

Arthashastra Visharada during the Dasara celebrations of 1926.

Shamashastry who passed away in 1944 was an extremely simple man

with deep

religious habits. Humility was his hallmark and he was always ready to

help youngsters

to come up in life. Western scholars had always argued that ancientIndia had learnt the

art of administration from the Greeks ever since they came into contact

with Greeks with

the invasion of Alexander. But Shamashastry had proved them all

wrong with his

discovery of Arthashastra and showed how even the British had

adopted some of the

features contained in the treatise for their administration.

The Centenary Year of the publication of Kautilyas Arthashastra was

observed in 2009.Source: Bhavans Journal, December 31, 2009

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Kautilyas Arthashastra: Centenary year of the publicationBy janamejayan

Nilot Pal Baruah (July 27, 2009)

HERITAGE: ARTHASHASTRA

Year Of The Guru

http://cms.outlooki ndia.com/ images/articles/ outlookindia/ 2009/7/27/ manuscript_ 20090727. jpg

Its hundred years since the discovery of Chanakyas great work from a manuscript

SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU

Against Amnesia

This is the centenary year of the publication of Kautilyas Arthashastra

The manuscript is in a cupboard in the directors office at the Oriental Research Institute,

Mysore

Its pathbreaking discovery, and publication, by Shamashastry altered our view of ancient

Indian history

The institute is still not clear how the centenary should be celebrated

Shamashastrys family fears the event may go unnoticed

The Oriental Research Institute (ORI), set up in 1891 by the then maharaja of Mysore, is a

magnificent heritage building, blending architectural styles such as Gothic, Corinthian and

Romanesque, and housing nearly 60,000 palm-leaf manuscripts from antiquity

What brought fame to the institute, however, was the discovery among them of

KautilyasArthashastra some 100 years ago. A manuscript of the treatise on politics and

governance, believed to have been written circa 4th century BC, was found and identified by

Rudrapatna Shamashastry, a refined scholar of Sanskrit who was the librarian and later the

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curator of the institute. Until it was identified from a manuscript by Shamashastry,

Chanakyas opus was know only from references.

http://cms.outlooki ndia.com/ Uploads/outlooki ndia/2009/ 200907/20090727/ shamashastry_

20090727. jpgShamashastry came across the work in a heap of manuscripts he was goingthrough. This was in 1905. But it was 1909 by the time he transcribed, edited and published the

Sanskrit edition, making the current year the centenary of his landmark publication. He then

painstakingly rendered the work into English, publishing it to astounding ovation in 1915, by which

time excerpts had already made appearances in journals like Indian Antiquityand Mysore

Review, preparing Indologists across the world for the watershed appearance of the English

edition.

All the fame of the work and its discovery, however, do not seem to have inspired enough

enthusiasm for careful preservation. Instead of a safe or a weatherproof glass case, the

manuscript is brought out for viewing, after much persuasion, from an unlocked steel cupboard in

the directors office. A wrapping of red cloth, and a spray of preservative citronyl oil, is all the

protection the manuscript gets. Prof Jaganath, an expert in manuscriptology at the ORI, puts it all

in perspective. Dont expect an autograph of Chanakya on these palm leaves, he says. This is

perhaps only a recopy of a recopy made some 500-600 years ago. It was with a pandit in

Tanjore, who handed it over to the institute not knowing what was written on it. Other such

recopies were found elsewhere in India, but that was later, after our discovery. He explains that

manuscript is in Sanskrit, but written out in the Grantha script, not Devanagiri. Since the Tamil

script couldnt accommodate certain sounds from Sanskrit, Grantha was created to allow for the

representation of those sounds in a script accessible to those who know Tamil.

At Asutosh, the house of Shamashastry in the Chamundipuram locality of Mysore, theres no

electricity supply, but his portrait is illuminated by torchlight and brought down enthusiastically by

his great grandson to be photographed. And the daughter-in- law explains that the house is

named for the legendary Sir Asutosh Mookerjee of Calcutta University, who encouraged my

father-in-law a great deal and also visited our house when it was built. Family members bring out

reprints of Shamashastrys other books and ask, Do you think the university or the government

will celebrate the centenary year?

http://cms.outlooki ndia.com/ Uploads/outlooki ndia/2009/ 200907/20090727/ oriental_ research_

institute_ 20090727. jpg Nursery: The Oriental Research Institute, Mysore

Their uncertainty is at odds with the magnitude of Shamashastrys discovery and the subsequent

publication of Kautilyas work. Dr H.P. Devaki, director of the ORI, says, The publication

ofArthashastra not only gave a huge fillip to Sanskrit studies, but significantly altered our

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understanding of ancient India. A lot of course correction happened in history after this was

published. And since it touched upon subjects like law, politics, economics, trade, governance,

diplomacy, war, weaponry, natural calamities, the vices and virtues of rulers, it also naturally

attracted a lot of general interest. Even the genius and skulduggery of its author Kautilyawho

was also known as Vishnugupta or by the patronymic Chanakyawas in the realm of mythbefore the discovery of the manuscript. It was well-known that Chanakya overthrew the Nanda

dynasty and installed Chandragupta Maurya on the throne circa 321 BC, but scholars knew of

him and his magnum opus only from references in other classical texts by people like Dandi,

Bana, Vishnusarma, Mallinathasuri, or the Greek Megasthenes. Not until Shamashastrys labours

of transcription and translation did it come to light that the original work was in 15 adhikarnas (or

books) and a total of 150 chapters.

http://cms.outlooki ndia.com/ Uploads/outlooki ndia/2009/ 200907/20090727/ manuscript_

preservation_ 20090727. jpg The manuscript is presrved using citronyl oil

F.W. Thomas, then the librarian of the India Office Library in London, had this to say about the

work at the time of its English publication: I can testify to the great value of the work, which

sheds more light upon the realities of ancient India, especially as concerns administration, law,

trade, war and peace, than any text we possess. Vincent Smith, the author of the History of

Ancient India, in the preface to the second edition of his book, makes this acknowledgement in

1913: The description of the Maurya empire and administration. ..has been revised with special

regard to the discovery and partial publication by Mr R. Shamashastry of the ancient treatise on

the art of government, ascribed to Chanakya or Kautilya, the minister of Chandragupta Maurya.

Several such revisions of history writing followed. Indologist J.F. Fleet, who wrote an introduction

to the English edition, was generous in his praise of Shamashastry: We are, and shall always

remain, under a great obligation to him for a most important addition to our means of studying the

general history of ancient India.

The fame ofArthashastra and Shamashastry was so widespread that Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV,

the then maharaja of Mysore, had a strange encounter in Germany. At a party, he apparently ran

into the vice-chancellor of a German university and introduced himself, whereupon he was asked

if he was from the land of Shamashastry. M.S. Srinivas, Shamashastrys son, now in his eighties,

says, The maharaja was so overwhelmed that on his return to Mysore, he invited my father and

felicitated him. He also had the large-heartedness to say, In Mysore, Im the king and you are my

subject, but in the rest of the world, Im known only through you. Accolades followed. In August

1919, the Oriental University, Washington DC, conferred a honorary doctorate on Shamashastry.

Calcutta University followed suit in 1921; the same year, he was admitted to the Royal Asiatic

Society and won the Campbell Memorial gold medal.

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http://cms.outlooki ndia.com/ Uploads/outlooki ndia/2009/ 200907/20090727/ ms_srinivas_

20090727. jpgLegend & legacy: Shamashastrys son M.S. Srinivas at the family home

There is also a record of Rabindranath Tagore complimenting Shamashastry. In 1927, Mahatma

Gandhi met him in Nandi Hills. Prof A.V. Narasimha Murthy, a retired professor of ancient history,paraphrases the conversation, as recorded by Mahadev Desai, the Mahatmas secretary:

Shastry told Gandhiji, Sir, in the ancient days, there used to be guides like Patanjali,

Hemachandra, Vidyaranya and others. Rulers today dont have such an advantage. You should

lead the country towards morality. Gandhiji smiled and said, Who will bell the cat? My orientation

is slightly different; the minds of our people have to be rectified first.

Asked how the ORI proposes to celebrate the centenary year of the publication ofArthashastra,

Devaki says, We should do something and we will certainly do something, but then I am stepping

down as director soon. My successor will make all the plans. But Prof Jaganath says the best

way to commemorate the event is to study properly the several commentaries that have been

written on theArthashastra after the 12th century. The manuscript discovered by Shamashastry

also carried a commentary on a small part by a writer named Bhattasvamin.

The Mysore University, under whose jurisdiction the ORI comes, was given a Rs 100-crore grant

in the 2008 Union budget. Perhaps it should set aside a small sum to commemorate the

discovery of this great work. At present, it is only the Kautilya Circle, a roundabout on

Radhakrishnan Avenue, that serves as a reminder of Mysores great tryst with classical

discovery.

Centenary ofArthasastras Publication

Click here to go to the

main page of Star OfMysore.

Click here to go to themain page of Sri.

K.B.Ganapathy.Please send your

opinions, feedbacks,articles to shshenoy at

yahoo.com

The Maharaja of Mysore

wanted to celebrate thegolden jubilee of Her

Majesty the QueenVictoria in 1891 and built

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a little beauty and named it Victoria Jubilee Institute.

The building is a rare blend of classical European,Gothic, Corinthian and Romanesque architectural

elements. Subsequently, the walls of this buildingwere adorned by Hoysala sculptures brought from a

destroyed Hoysala temple. There are some beautifulinscriptions in front of the building which give a

heritage ambience to the structure.

Subsequently the building used to house thousands

of rare palm leaf manuscripts and was called MysoreOriental Library and now it is called Oriental

Research Institute (ORI) and is a part of MysoreUniversity. Queen Victoria is forgotten but this

Research Institute is famous all over the worldbecause it was here the first manuscript of Kautilyas

Arthasastra was discovered.

Around 1905 there was a librarian by nameRudrapatnam Shamasastry (1868 - 1944) who

hailed from the celebrated village Rudrapatna on the

banks of Kaveri, famous for Karnatak music. Hebelonged to the Sanketi Brahmin community and by

37 he had mastered Veda, vedanga, classicalSanskrit, Prakrit, English, Kannada, German, French

and other languages. He had also learnt the variousancient scripts of India.

As the librarian daily he was examining each

manuscript to know its contents. It was not an easytask either. Most of the palm leaf manuscripts werefragile and to handle them was a big problem. This

routine examination continued day by day, monthafter month and even after years, without great

success. But Shamasastry was hopeful of finding outsome new spectacular manuscript which was not

known to the world. His assistants always tauntedhim but unmindful of all these, Sastry continued his

work with all devotion and sincerity.

One fine morning in 1905, he picked up palm leaf

manuscript from a heap. He examined this palm leaf

and was pleasantly surprised to know that it was awork on Arthasastra or administration written by an

author called Kautilya, Chanakya or Vishnugupta

before the dawn of Christian era. Some peoplethought that it must have been a hoax: others

looked at this with suspicion; but the introductionwritten by Shamasastry in 1909 giving the details of

the author and its authenticity convinced that it was

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a genuine literary wonder of the ancient world.

Fleet (London), Jolly (Germany), Winternitz(Germany), Thomas (London), Pelliot (France),

Keith, Sten Konow and a host of otherscongratulated Shamasastry for heralding a new era

in Indian administration. R. K. Mukerji, AshutoshMukerji, B. C. Law, C. R. Reddy and other Indian

scholars paid handsome tribute to Shamasastry.Rabindranath Tagore specially expressed his

happiness on this occasion. Thus Shamasastryovernight became a celebrity not only in India but all

over the world in academic circles. The book wastranslated to French, German and many other

languages.

Awards and recognitions followed immediately after

its publication in 1909. Washington University (USA)awarded a doctorate; Royal Asiatic Society awarded

its Fellowship: He was awarded Campbell gold

medal. Calcutta University also gave him a doctorate

and invited him to deliver a series of lectures onArthasastra. Mysore University appointed him

professor of History.

Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV gave the title

Arthasastra Visharada; The Government of Indiamade him a Mahamahopadhyaya. Varanasi Sanskrit

Mandali gave him the title Vidyalankara and

Panditaraja. Most of the Oriental Institutes in andoutside the country invited him to visit theirinstitutions and accept their honour. Unmindful of all

these encomiums, Sastry continued his researchwork on many knotty indological problems and as

Director of Archaeology of Mysore State publishedmany annual Reports and discovered many

inscriptions on stone and copper plates. He also didresearch on Tulu words in a Greek drama.

When Mahatma Gandhi was camping at Nandi Hills in

1927, Shamasastry met Gandhiji and presented a

copy of his Arthasastra. Gandhiji was pleased by this

scholarly work. An interesting conversation tookplace between the two. Sastry told Gandhiji, Sir, in

the ancient days there used to be guides like

Patanjali, Hemachandra, Vidyaranya and others; Buttodays rulers do not have such an advantage. You

should lead the country to wards morality. Gandhijismiled and said who will bell the cat? My orientation

is slightly different; minds of our people have to be

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rectified first.

A rare incident which throws light on his illustriouspersonality may be recounted here. Krishnaraja

Wadiyar IV once visited Germany and was invited toaddress a meeting in a club. The Maharaja was

introduced to the guests as His Highness theMaharaja of Mysore State. After the address by His

Highness, a German gentleman came near theMaharaja and asked, Your Majesty. Are you the

Maharaja of Mysore where lives Dr. Shamasastry thediscoverer of Arthasastra? The Maharaja was

pleasantly surprised that Shamasastry of Mysore waswell - known in far off Germany. He felt proud of this

great scholar and on return he called Sastry andsaid, In Mysore we are the Maharaja and you are

our subject; but in Germany, you are the master and

people recognise us by your name and fame.

Highly religious and simple in habits, always ready to

help the younger scholars, Shamasastry gave self -

respect to Indians in the matter of Indianadministration. European scholars had always

argued that ancient Indians learnt the art ofadministration from the Greeks with the contact

from Alexander. But Shamasastry has falsified thisidea and showed to the world the contributions of

Kautilya which even the Mughals and British adoptedin India. Today we salute Dr. Shamasastry on the

centenary of the publication of KautilyasArthasastra.

Prof. A. V. Narasimha Murthy,Former Head,

Department of Ancient History & Archaeology,

The librarian of Mysore06.10.2009 Posted in Aside

Its been a hundred years since Rudrapatna Shamasastry published the English translation

of Kautilyas Arthashastra

The Star of Mysore has an article (linkthanks JK) by A V Narasimha Murthy marking thecentenary of the publication of the very first English translation of theArthasastra:

Around 1905 there was a librarian by name Rudrapatnam Shamasastry (1868-1944) who hailed

from the celebrated village Rudrapatna on the banks of Kaveri, famous for Karnatak music. He

belonged to the Sanketi Brahmin community and by 37 he had mastered veda, vedanga,

classical Sanskrit, Prakrit, English, Kannada, German, French and other languages. He had also

learnt the various ancient scripts of India.

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As the librarian daily he was examining each manuscript to know its contents. It was not an

easy task either. Most of the palm leaf manuscripts were fragile and to handle them was a big

problem. This routine examination continued day by day, month after month and even after

years, without great success. But Shamasastry was hopeful of finding out some new spectacular

manuscript which was not known to the world. His assistants always taunted him but unmindful

of all these, Sastry continued his work with all devotion and sincerity.

One fine morning in 1905, he picked up palm leaf manuscript from a heap. He examined this

palm leaf and was pleasantly surprised to know that it was a work on Arthasastra or

administration written by an author called Kauitlya, Chanakya or Vishnugupta before the dawn

of Christian era. Some people thought that it must have been a hoax: others looked at this with

suspicion; But the introduction written by Shamasastry in 1909 giving the details of the author

and its authenticity convinced that it was a genuine literary wonder of the ancient world.