Agreement of Undertaking a Work

Agreement of Undertaking a Work

An Agreement of Undertaking a Work which has been mentioned in chapter XII of Book VI in Arthashastra, explains the contract under which the conqueror can begin a project of construction of a fort or creating forest roots, trade roots, as well as mining within the kingdom of the conqueror.

Agreement of Undertaking a Work is one of the agreements which are included in Arthashastra which authorises the conqueror to undertake some constructive activities in the region on the condition which states "Let us have a fort built". Whoever among the two kings is able to build an impregnable fort with less expenditure and labour overreaches the other. Kautilya in this chapter takes into account a number of constructive which include construction of forts, forests, trade routes, mining which form the economic base of a country .It further classifies between different types of forts, mines, trade routes as well as the items which are required for a strong kingdom.

Agreement of Undertaking a Work then begins with the construction of forts which include forts made on plain, in the centre of the river, and on a mountain which has been elaborately discussed in Construction of Forts, Book II, Arthashastra.Among these the fort which is easily irrigated with perennial water is more beneficial, and the king who is finally able to construct such fort with lowest expenditure and loss labour shall overreach the others. Along with the construction of forts the security of the kingdom also depend upon the construction of forests which includes timber forests, game forests, forests which consist of huge amount of beasts shall form the periphery of the kingdom. Within the timber forests, whoever plants forests which produces valuable articles, which expands into wild tracts, and which possesses river as the boundary shall overreach the others as a forest which consists of a river is self dependent as well as capable of withstanding any natural calamities. In case of game-forests, whoever plants a forest full of beasts at the neighbourhood of the enemy's forest consisting of wild animals , where it can cause huge loss to the enemy thereby extending his forests into an elephant forest which shall work as the boundary of the kingdom while protect its borders from enemy's attack; shall overreach others on benefits.

Agreement of Undertaking a Work further includes distinction on the basis of population which mentions that a state may include either a large number of effete persons or less number of brave warriors, or just the reverse. On this Kautilya supports a country with a large number of effete persons who can be employed to do various kinds of works in the camp while at the same time serve the soldiers who are fighting in the battle field or even terrify the enemy with its number. It is also possible to infuse spirit and enthusiasm in the timid persons by means of discipline and training. About the mines, it can be of two types - small mines with more valuable products and large mines with less valuable articles; while the first one shall produce quality, the latter will produce quantity. Kautilya in the chapter prefers to have small mines with valuable products which at the same time bear the risk to be interchanged with products of inferior quality.

Agreement of Undertaking a Work then decides the trade routes which can be one by water and one by land among which Kautilya supports the trade route passing through land as it is easy to provide defence to the trade route over land. In case of water trade route it is further divided into one along the shore while the other is mid ocean trade route, among these the shore water router is better as it touches all routes and is usually an uninterrupted system of navigation, as such it is capable of collecting valuable articles from the shore. The trade over the mid ocean is more time consuming and needs larger methods of defence till it reaches the shore. In case of trade routes Kautilya further specifies that the trade route which comes from the south shall be largely enriched with articles like conch shells, diamonds, precious stones, pearls and gold which is in plenty in the south. While other articles like blanket, skins and horses are available in the routes which come from north. Further there are other routes which travel from the east to west. The routes can be carried over through cart tracks or on foot path, or on camels, which shall finally depend on the persons who travel and their convenience.

Thus, Agreement of Undertaking a Work mentions that the conqueror who is capable of undertaking such constructive work which is less expensive and more profitable shall finally succeed in overreach his enemies provide benefits to his own people.

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