In Kautilya's Arthashashtra, the conquerer king is expected to establish, in the conquered territories, a social order based on the

Correct — B, dharma, varna and ashrama systems. Book XIII of the Arthashastra, which deals with the capture of a fort and the settlement of a conquered country, closes its account of world conquest with the line that having conquered the earth with its people of distinct castes and divisions of religious life, the king should enjoy it by governing it in accordance with the duties prescribed to kings. All three elements are named in that one sentence: varna as the castes, ashrama as the divisions of religious life, and dharma as the duties by which the ruler is to govern. The chapter on restoring peace in a conquered country then tells the conqueror to abolish transactions he considers unrighteous and to establish righteous ones in their place, which is the same instruction in practical form.

• (a)varna system only — The text pairs the castes with the divisions of religious life in the same breath, and the whole prescription is framed by the duties of a king. Varna alone is only a third of what is named.
• (c)dharma only — Dharma is the governing principle, but the passage is explicit about the social divisions the conquered population is composed of. Leaving out varna and ashrama drops the substance of the order to be established.
• (d)varna and ashrama systems — This is the closest of the three wrong options, and it omits the element that holds the other two together. The king is told to govern in accordance with the duties prescribed for him, which is dharma, and the order he establishes rests on that as much as on the two social divisions.

The Arthashastra treats the maintenance of the varna and ashrama order as the king's first duty, and states elsewhere that whoever upholds his own duty and follows the rules of caste and of the divisions of religious life will be happy in this world and beyond. Book XIII applies that principle to newly conquered territory: the conqueror is to adopt the dress, speech and customs of the people, honour their festivals and their deities, remit taxes, release prisoners, favour the learned and the brave with grants, and then set the social and legal order on the same footing as at home.

The word 'establish' in the stem points to a programme rather than a single institution, which is what makes the three-part option the fuller answer. The practical advice around it is worth knowing on its own, because it is unexpectedly conciliatory for a text with the Arthashastra's reputation. The paper prints the title as Arthashashtra and the ruler as conquerer; both are the booklet's own spellings and are reproduced here unchanged. On dating, the received text is usually treated as a classical manual of statecraft compiled and revised over centuries, rather than as a documentary record of Mauryan administration.

• Book XIII of the Arthashastra deals with the capture of a fort and the settlement of a conquered country.
• Its closing verse speaks of the earth conquered with its people of distinct castes and divisions of religious life, to be governed by the duties prescribed to kings.
• The chapter on restoring peace advises the conqueror to adopt local dress, speech, customs and festivals.
• It also tells him to remit taxes, release prisoners, help the diseased and the helpless, and reward the learned and the brave.
• The Arthashastra is attributed to Kautilya, also called Vishnugupta and Chanakya, and is a manual of statecraft rather than an administrative record.

• Reading the Arthashastra as purely coercive and missing its advice to conciliate a conquered people.
• Treating varnashramadharma as naming only two things when the text names the duties separately.
• Dating the received text confidently to the Mauryan court.

A completion item on a named text, where the fuller and the narrower descriptions are both offered and the wording of the source decides between them.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Kautilya's Arthashastra advises a conqueror, on taking a new territory, to

  • (a)impose the customs of his own country at once
  • (b)adopt the dress, speech and customs of the people
  • (c)disband all local officials without exception
  • (d)raise taxes to pay for the campaign

  Answer(b) adopt the dress, speech and customs of the people — Book XIII treats conciliation as the first instrument of settlement.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The saptanga theory of the Arthashastra describes the state as made up of

  • (a)four elements
  • (b)five elements
  • (c)seven elements
  • (d)nine elements

  Answer(c) seven elements — the king, minister, territory, fort, treasury, army and ally.