The Arthashastra explores issues of social welfare, the collective ethics that hold a society together, advising the king that in times and in areas devastated by famine, epidemic and such acts of nature, or by war, he should initiate public projects such as creating irrigation waterways and building forts around major strategic holdings and towns and exempt taxes on those affected. The text incorporates Hindu philosophy, includes ancient economic and cultural details on agriculture, mineralogy, mining and metals, animal husbandry, medicine, forests and wildlife. It includes books on the nature of government, law, civil and criminal court systems, ethics, economics, markets and trade, the methods for screening ministers, diplomacy, theories on war, nature of peace, and the duties and obligations of a king. The Sanskrit title, Arthashastra, can be translated as 'political science' or 'economic science' or simply 'statecraft', as the word artha (अर्थ) is polysemous in Sanskrit the work has a broad scope. The first English translation, also by Shamasastry, was published in 1915. Composed, expanded and redacted between the 2nd century BCE and 3rd century CE, the Arthashastra was influential until the 12th century, when it disappeared. The text is likely to be the work of several authors over centuries. Some scholars believe them to be the same person, while a few have questioned this identification. The latter was a scholar at Takshashila, the teacher and guardian of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Kautilya, also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is traditionally credited as the author of the text. The Arthashastra ( Sanskrit: अर्थशास्त्रम्, IAST: Arthaśāstram) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy.

Chandragupta maurya serial episode 87