A tenth-century manual for kings, complete in English.
1732 Studios publishes The Nectar of Statecraft, Somadeva Sūri’s Nītivākyāmṛtam: more than fifteen hundred maxims on power, translated directly from the Sanskrit.
In the middle of the tenth century, a Jain monk who owned nothing wrote a manual for kings. Somadeva Sūri had renounced property, violence, and ambition. What he had not renounced was his eye.
The Nītivākyāmṛtam is his book on power: short sentences on ministers, spies, envoys, forts, treasuries, allies, law, war, and the daily conduct of a man who intends to keep his position. A king’s dharma, he writes, is to restrain the corrupt and protect the cultivated. 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.
Somadeva has been read in India for a thousand years and almost nowhere else. The Nectar of Statecraft: Maxims on Power from Tenth-Century India is a new English translation of the complete work, all thirty-two books. Nothing has been softened, including the parts a modern reader will not like.
The particulars
- The complete work, all thirty-two books, translated from the Sanskrit by 1732 Studios
- Kindle, $6.99
- Paperback, 152 pages with a glossary of terms, $14.99
- We drafted the translation with machine assistance and checked every line against the original
- The Amazon links are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, 1732 Studios earns from qualifying purchases.
1732 Studios publishes the great books: guided editions that teach a language through the book itself, audiobooks, and its own English translations. Everything the studio makes is on the shelf at 1732studios.com.