Synopsis The present monograph the Kautiliya Arthasastra: Its Author, Date and Relevance for the Maurya Period throws much new light on the problems connected with the study of the Arthasastra. Its author Professor S.R. Goyal believes that Vishnugupta Kautilya who wrote the Arthasastra was different from Chanakya and that the former was a staunch Brahmana while the latter was a Jaina by faith. This separation of the individualities of Chanakya and Kautilya makes its necessary to study the Arthasastra afresh. Professor Goyal has also for the first time suggested the need of determining the inner chronology of the Arthasastra which implies that the problem of the date of Kautilya should not be confused with the date of the material used by him much of which could have come down to him from earlier times. In the light of these suggestions the author has studied afresh several aspects of the Arthasastric material, specially those connected with the religious condition, state capitalism, law of succession, provision for emergency taxes, administrative terms, numismatic data, etc. His suggestion that the history of the meaning of the term mahamatra proves almost indubitably that the Arthasastra was composed in the post-Maurya period, is of great interest. The comparison of Kautilya with Megasthenes on the one hand and with Machiavelli on the other is on new lines and is bound to suggest fresh ideas to the researchers.