Book 15: Tantrayukti (Plan of a Treatise)

Adhyaya 1

This chapter teaches the ministerial craft of turning compact śāstric rules into uniform, enforceable policy through a standardized set of interpretive tools. It frames Book 15 as the state’s method manual to prevent governance failure through misinterpretation. It introduces key tantrayuktis (definition, instruction, example, implication, indication, analogy, postulation) as repeatable reasoning moves. It links method to substance: indriyajaya underwrites disciplined learning and administration. It regulates kāma by subordinating it to dharma and artha, preventing policy from becoming self-indulgent. It specifies scalable mantripariṣad sizing (12/16/20 or as capacity allows) as an institutional application of “extension by implication.” The outcome is a coherent bureaucracy, higher-quality counsel, and faster adaptation in conquest and consolidation.