Relevance of Kautilya's Arthasastra

摘要

I have demonstrated one way of reviving the use of Kautilya's Arthasastra for conceptualising knowledge. This method once mastered can also be applied for understanding contemporary issues of world politics and international relations. The step-wise process is that after understanding the idea of vijigisu (would be conqueror), the first step, or ideas such as (4) upayas, (7) prakrits, (6) sadgunyas, (12) rajmandalas, (3) vijays and (3) yuddhas need to be internalised by rote using the mnemonic acronym of UPSRVY (4-7-6-12-3-3). The next step is to try and apply the concepts to events. It will be seen that most answers emerge as common sense, which the mnemonic acronym will facilitate. Steadily other aspects of the Arthasastra can be mastered by such mind games. Care needs to be taken to constantly refer to the original sutra. This could be used to advantage for contingency planning with scenarios and variables.