Artha-śāstra
Artha-śāstra · artha-śāstra, “the science of wealth and polity”
Grammar: neuter noun; a compound of artha (wealth, gain, the aims of worldly life) and śāstra (teaching, science): “the science of artha”.
Meaning: the science of polity and wealth: how a king gains, guards and increases the wealth of the realm and rules it. It is one of the vidyās (branches of knowledge).
In the scriptures: at the opening of the Agni Purāṇa, Agnideva tells Vasishṭha that there are two vidyās, the parā and the aparā, and both are forms of Vishṇu. The aparā vidyā is the four Vedas, the six Vedāṅgas, the kośa (lexicon), Mīmāṃsā, Dharma-śāstra, Purāṇa, Nyāya-śāstra, Āyurveda, Saṅgīta-śāstra, Dhanurveda and Artha-śāstra; the parā vidyā is that which teaches Brahma (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 1). In the teaching on prāyaścitta, all the vidyās, among them the artha-śāstra, are named, and Hari alone, the one Vishṇu, is all of them, in manifest and unmanifest forms (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 174). At the close of the Purāṇa, chandas, śikshā, vyākaraṇa, nighaṇṭu, jyotisha, nirukta, dharma-śāstra, mīmāṃsā, nyāya, āyurveda, purāṇa, dhanurveda, gāndharva, artha-śāstra, vedānta and the rest are all called forms of Hari; and artha-śāstra is among the vidyās shown in the Agni Purāṇa, after medicine and gandharva-veda (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 383).
In the duties of a king, the king must guard his son well and train him in dharma-śāstra, artha-śāstra, kāma-śāstra and dhanurveda, and teach him the crafts. From those learned in the three Vedas the king himself must learn the three Vedas, the ancient daṇḍanīti, ānvīkshikī and artha-śāstra; vārttā he learns from the world (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 225).
In the teaching on vyavahāra (law), when artha-śāstra and dharma conflict, dharma-śāstra is stronger than artha-śāstra: this is the maryādā (set rule) taught by the munis (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 253).
Related terms: Dharma-śāstra · Daṇḍanīti · Ānvīkshikī · Rāja-dharma · Vidyā · Artha
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 1, 174, 225, 253, 383