01A pupil’s homage
Kamandaka opens with a run of verses for Vishnugupta. He was born in a family of rishis who took no gifts, he learned the four Vedas as if they were one, and by the thunderbolt of his counsel the mountain of the Nandas fell from its roots. Alone, by the power of mantra, he won the earth for Chandragupta. Then comes the line the whole book stands on: homage to that Vishnugupta, the creator, who drew the nectar of nitishastra out of the great ocean of the Arthashastra. Kamandaka says he follows that teacher’s view and condenses it for kings.
02Author and date
Of Kamandaka himself nothing is known beyond the book, which is also called the Kamandaki. His warm homage led later readers to call him Vishnugupta’s own disciple; scholars place the work between the fourth and seventh centuries CE, after the Arthashastra and before the Hitopadesha, which borrows from it. Where Kautilya writes in prose sutras crowded with lists, salaries and fines, Kamandaka writes in shlokas meant to be learned by heart. He drops most of the administrative detail and keeps the politics: the king, his limbs, his neighbours, his wars.
03Twenty sargas
The printed text runs to 20 sargas divided into 36 prakaranas, about 1,200 shlokas in all. The first three sargas train the king: mastery of the senses, the company of the learned, the four vidyas, the order of varna and ashrama, the greatness of danda, right conduct. Sargas four to eight build the state, from the seven limbs to the circle of kings. Nine to thirteen are diplomacy: treaties, war, the march, counsel, envoys and spies. Fourteen and fifteen treat calamities and vices. The last five sargas take the army from the march and the camp to omens, the seven means, the commander and the battle arrays.
04The king at the helm
For Kamandaka the king is the cause of the world’s growth, as the moon is of the ocean’s swell. If there were no king to lead rightly, the people would founder like a boat on the sea without a helmsman; the Hitopadesha later lifts this verse word for word. The king must first conquer the six inner enemies and keep the company of elders: one joins a guru to gain the shastra, and the shastra exists to grow humility. A king without the eye of the shastra is called blind, he says, and a blind king led by able ministers is safer than a sighted one drunk with pride.
05Seven limbs
The fourth sarga opens with the definition every student of niti learned from this book: the lord, the minister, the country, the fort, the treasury, the army and the ally, each helping the others, are called the seven-limbed kingdom. Lacking even one limb it does not work well. So the king must test each, and he must begin with himself, making sure he has the qualities he asks of others. Kamandaka then gives the qualities of each limb in turn: what makes a minister trustworthy, a countryside prosperous, a fort strong, a treasury full and an army loyal.
06The circle of kings
The eighth sarga draws the mandala round the vijigishu, the king who seeks to conquer. In front of him stand the enemy, his own ally, the enemy’s ally, the ally’s ally and the enemy’s ally’s ally. Behind him stand the rear enemy, the rear ally and their two supporters. Beside them all are the madhyama, the middle king, and the udasina, the neutral beyond, each strong enough to tip the balance. Kamandaka also records how earlier teachers counted it: Maya four kings, Puloma and Indra six, Ushanas twelve, Brihaspati eighteen, Vishalaksha fifty-four, and the school of Manu seventy-two elements.
07Treaties, vices and the seven means
When a weaker king is attacked, the ninth sarga says, he should seek a treaty and buy time, and it names sixteen kinds, from kapala, a peace between equals, to skandhopaneya, a tribute paid in instalments. The fifteenth sarga counts the seven vices of a ruler: four born of desire, which are hunting, dice, women and drink, and three born of anger, which are harsh speech, harsh punishment and the ruin of wealth. The eighteenth adds three means to the classic four: sama, dana, bheda and danda, then maya, upeksha and indrajala, deception, calculated neglect and battlefield illusion.
08Read for a thousand years
Shankararya’s commentary, the Jayamangala, was the standard aid for readers. Rajendralal Mitra edited the Sanskrit for the Bibliotheca Indica of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, issued in parts from 1849 to 1884, and noted in his preface that a work under Kamandaka’s name was known in Bali, where Old Javanese books of polity were copied on palm leaf. Manmatha Nath Dutt’s English translation followed in 1896. Before the Arthashastra was found in 1905, much of what was known of Kautilya’s ideas came through this book.
What it contains
- 1Sarga 1: Indriyajaya, Vidyavriddhasamyoga
The homage to Vishnugupta, the king as the root of the world’s order, and the conquest of the senses. The king is told to serve his elders and learned men, for learning grows humility.
- 2Sarga 2: Vidyavibhaga, Varnashrama, Dandamahatmya
The four vidyas, anvikshiki, trayi, varta and dandaniti; the duties of varna and ashrama; and the greatness of danda, without which the strong devour the weak.
- 3Sarga 3: Acharavyavasthapana
The conduct of a good king: truth, gentleness, generosity and the right use of speech. It is the most dharmic of the sargas.
- 4Sarga 4: Prakritisampat
The seven limbs of the state and the excellence of each, from king and minister to treasury, army and ally. The king tests himself before the others.
- 5Sarga 5: Svamyanujivivritta
Master and servant: how a king should treat those who live by serving him, and how a servant should serve. One of the longest sargas.
- 6Sarga 6: Kantakashodhana
Clearing the thorns: rooting out wrongdoers who prey on the people. A short sarga of about 15 verses.
- 7Sarga 7: Rajaputrarakshana, Atmarakshana
Guarding and training the princes, and the king’s own safety in his palace, his food and his bedchamber.
- 8Sarga 8: Mandalayoni, Mandalashodhana
The circle of kings and how its members stand to the conqueror, with the counts of earlier teachers from Maya to the Manavas. It ends with the riddle of the tree of niti with eight branches, four roots and sixty leaves.
- 9Sarga 9: Sandhivikalpa
The sixteen kinds of treaty and when a hard-pressed king should seek each one.
- 10Sarga 10: Vigrahavikalpa
The causes and kinds of war, and when war is better than peace.
- 11Sarga 11: Yana, asana, dvaidhibhava, samshraya
The remaining four of the six measures: marching, waiting, the double policy and seeking shelter, each in its varieties.
- 12Sarga 12: Mantravikalpa
Counsel: who is to be consulted, where and how secrecy is kept, and the five parts of a deliberation.
- 13Sarga 13: Dutaprachara, Charavikalpa
Envoys and their conduct at a foreign court, and the kinds of spies a king keeps.
- 14Sarga 14: Utsaha, Prakritikarma, Prakritivyasana
The praise of energy, the work of each limb of the state, and the calamities that fall on the limbs.
- 15Sarga 15: Saptavyasanavarga
The seven vices of a king, four from desire and three from anger. The king’s own vice is graver than any calamity of the state.
- 16Sarga 16: Yatrabhiyoktripradarshana
When to march and against whom, the seasons for campaigns and the strength needed.
- 17Sarga 17: Skandhavaranivesha, Nimittajnana
Laying out the war camp, and reading omens before battle.
- 18Sarga 18: Upayavikalpa
The seven means: sama, dana, bheda, danda, maya, upeksha and indrajala. Counsel and treasury, it says, fight even when the fourfold army rests.
- 19Sarga 19: Sainya, Senapati, Kutayuddha
The strength and weakness of troops, the duties of the commander, and the varieties of stratagem in war.
- 20Sarga 20: Elephants, horses, chariots, infantry and arrays
The work and ground of each arm of the army, gifts to the troops, battle arrays and open battle. The book ends on the field.
Famous verses
नीतिशास्त्रामृतं श्रीमानर्थशास्त्रमहोदधेः। य उद्दध्रे नमस्तस्मै विष्णुगुप्ताय वेधसे॥
Homage to that Vishnugupta, the creator, who drew up the nectar of nitishastra from the great ocean of the Arthashastra.Kamandakiya Nitisara 1.6
यदि न स्यान्नरपतिः सम्यङ्नेता ततः प्रजा। अकर्णधारा जलधौ विप्लवेतेह नौरिव॥
If there were no king to lead them rightly, the people would founder here like a boat without a helmsman on the sea.Kamandakiya Nitisara 1.10
स्वाम्यमात्यश्च राष्ट्रं च दुर्गं कोशो बलं सुहृत्। परस्परोपकारीदं सप्ताङ्गं राज्यमुच्यते॥
The lord, the minister, the country, the fort, the treasury, the army and the ally, each serving the others: this is called the seven-limbed kingdom.Kamandakiya Nitisara 4.1
साम दानं च भेदश्च दण्डश्चेति चतुष्टयम्। मायोपेक्षेन्द्रजालं च सप्तोपायाः प्रकीर्तिताः॥
Conciliation, gifts, division and force make four; with deception, neglect and illusion, seven means are declared.Kamandakiya Nitisara 18.3
It was read alongside the Panchatantra and Hitopadesha as a standard niti text in Indian courts, and the Hitopadesha quotes it. It kept Kautilya’s teaching in circulation while the Arthashastra itself was lost, and its name travelled as far as Bali.