चाणक्यराजनीतिः /34

INTRODUCTION
 

 
the nectar of the Nītiśāstra,¹ Kāmandaki probably

meant to say that Viṣṇugupta had extracted from the

textbook of Arthaśāstra the moral sayings on niti,

Caṇakya's famous aphorisms and maxims with a moral

and ethical background.²
 

 
5
 

 
7. Collections of these maxims are generally known

as rājanītiśāstra, or rājanītisamuccaya, or epitomes of

polity, although they do not contain now many

aphorisms dealing with raja-niti.
 

 
3
 

 
Many texts of collections of Canakya's maxims

open with the introductory stanza, beginning with the

words pranamya śirasā vişnum. The second half of this

stanza promises to deal with rajanitisamuccaya. The

reader will be however sorely disappointed in finding

anything of a like nature. Nevertheless Nīti main-

tains its place as an element of equal rank [with the

epos, Purăṇa-s, etc.] and need not fear obscuration by

comparison with other brilliant lights '.4 Sometimes

whole chapters are devoted to niti,5 but in some texts

containing Cāṇakya's maxims the number of stanzas

which can be assigned to nīti is negligible. It is most
 

 
1 नीतिशास्त्रामृतं धीमानर्थशास्त्रमहोदधेः ।
 

 
समुद्दधे नमस्तस्मै विष्णुगुप्ताय वेधसे ॥ (1.6 )
 

 
C
 

 
2 It is also possible that Kāmandaki simply meant that he

had extracted the book on political science, now known under

the name of Kautilya's Arthaśāstra.
 

 
3 Bh. Chaund Dutt in the Introd. to CSBD, p. xi.
 

 
4J. van Manen in the Foreword to CRC, p. i.
 

 
5 cf. infra para 20.
 

 
6 In particular in the Laghu Cāṇakya version we find very
 

 
few maxims dealing with niti.