Translated from the Sanskrit
The Nectar of Statecraft
Maxims on Power from Tenth-Century India
Somadeva Sūri
In the middle of the tenth century, a Jain monk who owned nothing wrote a manual for kings.
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The complete work, all thirty-two books, in a new English translation made directly from the Sanskrit.
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The book
Somadeva Sūri had renounced property, violence, and ambition. What he had not renounced was his eye. The Nītivākyāmṛta is his book on power: more than fifteen hundred short sentences on ministers, spies, envoys, forts, treasuries, allies, law, war, and the daily conduct of a man who intends to keep his position. He has no patience for a ruler who mistakes piety for the job. On war he is colder than most: fight first with intelligence, and take up arms only when intelligence cannot conquer. On people he is colder still. Every servant is humble while still new.
The particulars
- Translation
- Public-domain Sanskrit (Somadeva Sūri, tenth century). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
- Method
- The translations are our own, drafted with machine assistance and verified line by line. How the editions are made.