The term Arthaśāstra is generally understood to be devoted topolitics or economics but really it is the Śastra or science that deals with Artha or material prosperity.Arthaśāstra is considered as the Upaveda of Atharvaveda. Vedic seers such as Bṛhaspati, Uśanās, Viśālākṣa, Bharadvāja, Parāśara etc. are considered as the founders of Arthaśāstra. Admittedly, no text directly written by them has reached our time,but their names are mentioned in the texts of later authors as Yājñavalkya, Manu, Kautilya or Cāṇakya, etc.

 

One of the earliest worksin this field is the Arthaśāstraof Kautilya, also known as Cāṇakya. It is a great work, having 15sections dealing with almost all the subjects of administration such as art of ruling, military strategy, taxation, foreign policy and so on. Cāṇakya or Kautilya, also known as Visnugupta, was a minister of the king Candragupta. Śukranīti (attributed to Śukra), Nitisara (written by Kamandaka), Nītivākyāmṛta (written by Somadevasūri) are some other texts about Arthaśāstra.