Kautilya's Maxims
6
The Tempting of the Heir
(ArS 1/17:28-33)

The Followers of Âmbhi: . . . And a secret agent should tempt him with hunting and gambling, wine and women, saying "Attack your father and seize the kingdom." Another secret agent should dissuade him.

Kautilya: To awaken one who slumbers in this way is extremely dangerous. For an unfinished object absorbs whatever it is smeared with. So also this prince, being immature of mind, will take as doctrine whatever he is told. Thus, one should instruct him in what conduces to spiritual and material good, not in what is spiritually and materially harmful.

Again, morally commonsensical. What you do to the heir is part of his education, and education should lead in the right direction. Do not test, rather train. Like the last maxim, this is a counsel of life. As between Chinese views of life, it patterns with Mencius (Kautilya's contemporary) rather than the later Sywndz.

The absurd levels of secrecy and intrigue to which the followers of Âmbhi have evidently here attained were to be far exceeded by the later layers of the Arthashastra.

 

Kautilya's Maxims is Copyright © 2001- by E Bruce and A Taeko Brooks

Contact The Project / To Overview / Exit to Kautilya Page