Thread by @othisaivu

Series about: History of Accounting philosophies, Indic contributions, ArthaShasthra. Rudrapatna Shamasastry - 2018 is his 150th birth anniversary - with this son-of-the-soil NOT being celebrated while the scums-of-the-soil (eg: Tipu) ARE! @sgurumurthy @MRVChennai @dharmadispatch

Of course we all know: AS was written c300BCE by VishnuguptaKautilya aka Chanakya. Much of its content are records of how things were done, but also abt how things should be undertaken. It is a handbook on statecraft, jurisprudence, strategy, tactics, law&order etc etc, but...

but, AS ALSO has the fundamentals on economics, accounting principles, capital formation, tax admin, imports & exports, retail, transport, stock admn & consumer rights that were widely prevalent then for a few centuries... AS is a veritable treasure trove of info abt our pasts!

However the manuscripts/sources of AS were given up as lost for Centuries, though many eminent scholars such as Bana, Dandin, Mallinathasuri, Vishnusarma, Bhattaswamin have all commented on it.
But AS suddenly surfaced due to the painstaking efforts of Rudrapattana Shamasastry

RS chanced upon AS mss at the Mysore Oriental Inst c1905CE which had been handed over by a Tanjavur scholar; RS slogged over it deciphering what was written in Grantham (a form of Tamil script accommodative of Sanskrit sounds with adaptations) & not in the original Devanagari.

Subsequent to the finding of this Tanjavur mss, there have been more such mss found elsewhere in Bharat, but RS' was/is the authoritative one. RS published the authenticated Sanskrit version in 1909 and a GREAT english translation in 1915. The scholarly world was stunned at this.

Fastfwd: In 2000, Prof of Econ & the foremost historian of Accounting thoughts - Richard Mattesich published a book in which he wrote glowingly abt the advanced ideas on Accounting in Arthashastra - as also abt the contribs of IndicAccounting to the dev of certain aspects in Math

Mattesich deals with three aspects ("relatively sophisticated concepts"):
1. Arthashastra's notions of Capital
2. Enumeration of various types of income, ideas of price changes, real vs fictitious holding gains
3. Classification of expenditure (including fixed vs variable costs)

Mattesich also concludes that - due to the highly developed Hindu accounting traditions of even before AS (attributing negative no to a debt, but a positive one to the asset), the Indic mathemagicians were comfortable with the idea of Negative Nos and were its early adapters.

A 'critical-theory' ;-) note about AS, unrelated to accounting: Robert Boesche in his 2010 paper 'Women in Kautilya's Arthashastra: persons, addictions & weapon' says that AS treats the idea of women in an egalitarian and respectful way.

...but then, it comes from a white! :-)

Anyway, we should all be grateful not only to Shamasastry, but also to the Mysore Oriental Institute, the Royalty & Administrators of the Mysore state who sponsored and continue to sponsor/support the archival endeavors...

We need to be proud of our genuine achievements. Chartered Accountants can showcase the great accounting traditions and RS. Karnataka & TN govts (and of course Bharat) can celebrate this 150yr of the birth of RS. Madras univ (RS was a BA from here - 1899) can honor him.
Will we?

A Tamil blog post on Mahomahopadhyaaya Rudrapattana Shamasastry - as a tribute to the indefatigable brilliance of his and his stellar contributions -- with some links and notes...

An evidence based Bharatheeya history will certainly liberate us. Thanks! othisaivu.wordpress.com/2018/11/13/pos…