Kautilya’s Arthashastra has been much talked for a variety of reasons mainly including foreign policy, strategic thinking, political neeti among others. It has also been viewed as a tool for entrepreneurs, fiction writers and self help gurus as well. However, the primary meaning of ‘Artha’ in Arthashastra is economics. Much of Kautilya’s thinking on economics has been either abstract extensions of his views on other areas or mere mention of 1-2 liners without thorough understanding of the subject. The subject requires an unique intersection of good economic knowledge and innate interest in samskritam based linguistic nuances of the text at hand. It is reasonable to say that very little serious academic work has been done to highlight this intersection.
Research Fellowships:
We at INDICA are looking to course correct this and showcase this intersection through a series of Research Fellowships Grants dealing with Kautilya’s economic views viz-a-viz the views from the Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabaratha, Adam Smith and their influences on contemporary finance and economic ideas.
The grant/fellowship would be provided to scholars who can provide research inputs into these key areas:
- Relevance of Arthashastra and its ideas to contemporary economic frameworks and ideas
- Ideation and relevance of economic principles from civilizational sources from ancient scriptures
- Translation of the Arthashastra text to contextualize the literature to todays times
Our Long Term Plan:
Eventually we would like to establish a ‘Center for Dharmic Economics’ to explore the wide variety of indigenous economic ideas. This center would explore the range of our ancient scriptures including the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Arthashastra, Niti-Sastra etc to elucidate economic and financial principles that are relevant to contemporary times. There would be an academic rigor to both the economic/financial side of this and the linguistic component of the various texts through inputs from esteemed scholars. As a consequence, the aim of this is to use the lessons from the academic work to look at addressing contemporary economic challenges today and for the decades to come.
Interested public intellectuals with a background in Economics or Sanskrit scholars interested in exploring this discipline and work in collaboration with experts in Economics may apply to us with a detailed bio at namaste@indica.org.in
