Arthashastra conference in Bengaluru links Kautilya's statecraft to modern governance
By Devansh TiwariKnowledge Systems Writer, Peepals Sanskriti
Representative image: Black_Sea / Pixabay
A three-day international conference on the Bharatiya Arthashastra tradition ended at Chanakya University, Bengaluru, on October 31, 2026, with scholars from India and abroad.
What Happened
A three-day international conference on the theme "Bharatiya Arthashastra Tradition" ended on Saturday, October 31, 2026, at Chanakya University in Bengaluru. Organised by the university's Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems from October 29 to 31, it brought together scholars from India and abroad, including participants from Turkey and Nepal, to examine India's classical writing on statecraft, economics and governance and what it may offer today. The university released an account of the conference on November 2.
Key Facts
- Dates and venue: October 29 to 31, 2026, Chanakya University, Bengaluru.
- Organiser: the university's Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems; its director, Dr Ramakrishna Pejathaya, gave the closing vote of thanks.
- The conference was organised around seven themes, from the foundations of Indian Arthashastra to statecraft, political thought, sustainability, development, business and leadership.
- Sessions on the final day included "Arthashastra for the Future: New Directions and Applications" and "Bharatiya Arthashastra: Foundational Principles and Practices".
- Dr R. Balasubramaniam, described by the organisers as a member of NITI Aayog, spoke on governance and Chanakya's ideas.
- The university launched its "Chanakya Supersite", described as its most ambitious project, and 87 students took part in a poster-making competition held alongside.
Why It Matters
The Arthashastra is a Sanskrit treatise on running a state: how a ruler should govern, collect revenue, manage the economy, run a public administration, keep law and order and conduct foreign relations. Tradition attributes it to Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, after whom the host university is named. The modern study of the text rests on a manuscript that turned up in 1905 among the palm-leaf manuscripts of the Oriental Research Institute in Mysuru.
The Bengaluru conference used the word in a broader sense, for a tradition of Indian writing on economics and statecraft, looking not only at Kautilya's text but at the tradition as a whole and how its ideas on public welfare, administration and ethics in leadership might inform current debates.
That aim was clear in the main address. "Public welfare and the well-being of society are the primary objectives of governance, and Chanakya emphasised that rulers must exercise control over their senses to achieve these goals," Dr Balasubramaniam said, according to the university's account. His remarks tied a ruler's self-discipline to the welfare of the people, a link that matched the conference's themes of leadership and administration.
Conferences of this kind are part of a wider push to bring Indian Knowledge Systems into higher education, under which universities have set up dedicated centres for research and teaching. The value of such work depends on scholarly rigour: reading the texts in their historical setting, separating what the sources say from later interpretation, and testing claims about their relevance with evidence. Researchers and students who want to follow the field can look for the conference papers when the organisers publish them.
Impact
Short-term: The papers and discussions add to a growing body of academic work on classical Indian political and economic thought, and the university's new online resource gives students another place to study it.
Long-term: If centres like this one keep producing peer-reviewed research, the Arthashastra tradition may find a firmer place in Indian courses on economics, public administration and leadership, alongside Western texts.
Who is affected: Students and researchers of Sanskrit, history, political science and economics; teachers building Indian Knowledge Systems courses; and policy and management readers interested in Indian sources on governance.
Key Takeaway
Chanakya University's three-day international conference on the Bharatiya Arthashastra tradition, which ended in Bengaluru on October 31, 2026, examined classical Indian writing on statecraft and economics and how its ideas on public welfare might inform modern governance.
Questions and Answers
What was the Arthashastra conference in Bengaluru?
It was a three-day international conference on the "Bharatiya Arthashastra Tradition", held at Chanakya University, Bengaluru, from October 29 to 31, 2026, by its Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, with scholars from India and countries including Turkey and Nepal.
What is the Arthashastra?
It is a Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, economics and administration that tradition attributes to Kautilya, also called Chanakya. A manuscript of the text was found in 1905 at the Oriental Research Institute in Mysuru.
What did speakers say about Chanakya and governance?
Dr R. Balasubramaniam said public welfare and the well-being of society are the primary objectives of governance, and that Chanakya stressed that rulers must control their senses to achieve them.
What topics did the conference cover?
Its seven themes ranged from the foundations of Indian Arthashastra to statecraft, political thought, sustainability, development, business and leadership.
Disclaimer: Prepared by the Peepals newsroom from publicly available sources with AI assistance. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and may change. Images may be representative. Not professional advice. Report an error via our contact page.
By Devansh Tiwari, Knowledge Systems WriterCovers Knowledge Systems and more for Peepals Sanskriti. All stories by Devansh Tiwari
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Devansh Tiwari is a pen name of the Peepals Global Editorial Team, which researches, fact-checks and publishes every story. The portrait is an illustration.
