NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 11 Kauṭilya’s Arthaśhāstra — In-text Questions

Book page 171 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

In today’s language, what are the names we would give these four categories?

Answer

They correspond almost exactly to the administrative units India still uses. Kauṭilya’s rule, quoted on page 171, is:

a sangrahaṇa for every 10 villages · a kārvaṭika for every 100 villages
a droṇamukha for every 400 villages · a sthānīya for every 800 villages

Kauṭilya’s term	Number of villages	What the text itself calls it	Today’s name
Sangrahaṇa	10	A sub-district headquarters	A block or tehsil headquarters — the level of our Panchayat Samiti
Kārvaṭika	100	District headquarters	A sub-division or small district headquarters — the level of our Zila Parishad
Droṇamukha	400	(not glossed in the text)	A large district or divisional headquarters, above the district and below the State
Sthānīya	800	Provincial headquarters	A State or provincial capital

Set the two ladders side by side and the resemblance is hard to miss:

Kauṭilya: village → sangrahaṇa → kārvaṭika → droṇamukha → sthānīya
Today: village → block → district → division → State

Careful: the match is close, not exact. Kauṭilya was describing a king’s administration, where officials were appointed from above; our Panchayati Raj bodies are elected by the people. The shape of the ladder is old; the democracy in it is new.

Q2.

Is it not amazing that a similar structure was thought of so long ago?

Answer

It is — and it is not an accident. The Arthaśhāstra is “an ancient text of governance written by Kauṭilya (later also known as Chāṇakya) some 2,300 years ago”. It deals with how a state should be structured and run, how the economy can be made prosperous, what the duties of the ruler are, and how to conduct war.

Why the same shape reappears after 2,300 years:

The problem has not changed. A single centre cannot look after thousands of scattered villages. So the villages must be grouped, and the groups grouped again — which produces a pyramid, then as now.
The numbers are practical. Ten villages are close enough for one officer to visit; 800 need a provincial capital. Kauṭilya had worked out roughly how much one office can handle.
The village was already the basic unit. Indian administration has counted upward from the village for more than two thousand years — and Fig. 11.1 still puts the village at the base.

What is genuinely new in our system is worth being just as clear about:

	Kauṭilya’s structure	Panchayati Raj today
Who holds office	Officials appointed by the king	Members elected by the people
Whom they answer to	Upward, to the king	Downward, to the Gram Sabha and the voters
Who may take part	A small trained group	Every adult voter, with seats reserved for women and disadvantaged sections
Purpose	To collect revenue and hold the state together	Self-government — “to enable villagers to take an active part in the management and development of their villages”

What the chapter wants you to take from this box: good ideas about organising a country are old, and India has thought about them for a very long time. But an old idea is not automatically the right one — it is the addition of elections, participation and reservation that turned an administrative ladder into a democracy.

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