ORIENTAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE:

1). Mysore Oriental Library is a world-renowned with a collection of more than 70,000 manuscripts and 40,000 rare books . One of them is Arthashastra. Tanjanjavoor Saraboji library also holds many manuscripts.

2). The Arthashastra, an ancient account of statecraft and military strategy, written by Kautilya (Chanakya) dates back to 3rd Century BC is one of them
Anyone from India would surely be familiar with Chanakya, and his famous quotes from the book Chanakya Neeti.

3). He was a student of d TakshashilaUniversity—D oldest university in d world. D more significant contribution of Chanakya was authoring Arthashastra which is a monumental treatise on administration&civic affairs.This comprehensive work must have been written between 321–296 BC.

4). It's a practical guide not only on running governmental organisations but also a work that deals with d duties of Kings,Ministers,local officials,methods of diplomacy,etc including ways and means of defeating an enemy.

5). Encyclopedic in its coverage many scholars hve wondered how1head cud carry such vast knowledge. This was 2400 years ago, and the book remained an integral part of scholastic discussions on economics, politics, and management; till about the 12th century, when it disappeared.

6). Although the book was considered lost, it was still remembered in folklore. People considered it as a legendary text, containing big secrets of statecraft, secrets no one would ever know again. Until 1905 when it was discovered in the heaps of 1000s of manuscripts.

7). The accidental rediscovery of the oldest surviving palm leaf copy is now of the trove of ancient wisdom is with the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) in Mysuru that functions under the University of Mysore.

8). In 1905 scholar Rudrapatnam Shamastry was given the task of cataloging a heap of palm leaf manuscripts donated to the Mysore Oriental Library by and unknown Brahmin who had come from Tanjore Saraswathi Mahal library, it is told.

9). It was during this mundane task that he stumbled upon a complete copy of Arthashastra. Imagine discovering a legendary book that was considered to be lost for over a millennium!There is one opinion that this manuscriot was given to this library by a man from Tanjavoor.

10).D text was written in Grantha script(a South Indian script used2write Sanskrit used around D6th Century CE)Shamastry wasn’t able2translate d scriptEven after3months ofdiscovering it.D story goes dat he discovered d key in a dream1night,&was able2understand d script d nextday.

11). He published it in 1909,&an English translation was published in 1915
Till d dawn of d 20th century,most of d western world believed dat d empires in Ancient India were run based on religion beliefs. This mindset was shattered after the re-discovery of the Arthashastra.

12).Western scholars had always argued that ancient India learned the art of administration from the Greeks after the invasion by Alexander. The Arthashastra proved these theories wrong, and further studies of the texts showed that this was the other way round,

13). how the text had influenced administrations all over the world.
The text Shamasastry discovered had commentary by Bhatta Swamy. It electrified the world of scholars and “Shamasastry & Mysuru” became famous overnight.

14). So much so,that Nalwadi Krishna Raja Wadiyar, during his trip to Germany, was introduced as the Maharaja hailing from Shamasastry’s hometown of Mysuru, where Arthashastra was discovered!

#Concluded