Sovereign Statecraft

Method

Sources and standards

Every tale carries a status. Here is what the statuses mean, what was read, and what is still open.

What the statuses mean

  • Verified. Read in a named edition or confirmed by two independent reliable sources.
  • Partial. The core is confirmed; a detail, a number or the earliest source is not.
  • Contested. Historians or the tradition itself disagree, and the entry says where.
  • Unverified. Reported but not checked. No entry is published at this status without saying so.

The Charitropakhyan is part of the Dasam Granth, whose authorship is disputed within the tradition. This site uses it as an instrument for counsel and does not cite it as doctrine.

Read directly

  • Arthur W. Ryder, The Panchatantra (University of Chicago Press, 1925). Book I, tales 1 and 14; Book V, tale 2; the frame story. Text on archive.org.
  • R. Shamasastry, Kautilya’s Arthashastra (1915), Book I, chapters VI and VII (restraint of the senses; the six enemies). archive.org.
  • Kisari Mohan Ganguli, The Mahabharata: Udyoga Parva sections XXXIII, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXIX; Sabha Parva sections XLIX and LVI. Section numbers are Ganguli’s and differ from the Critical Edition.
  • Sri Dasam Granth translation commentary, Charitars 21–23. SREC.
  • Guru Granth Sahib Ang 466, checked against BaniDB.

Relied on at secondary level

  • Wikipedia, with its own citations: Sri Charitropakhyan, Charitar 2, Guru Arjan, Prithi Chand, Masand, Second Battle of Anandpur, Zafarnama, Sikh Empire, Bhai Lalo, Makhan Shah Labana, Ramraiya, Panchatantra, Shukasaptati, Seven Wise Masters.
  • Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, Makhan Shah entry (eos.learnpunjabi.org).
  • D. L. Ashliman, folktexts (University of Pittsburgh), type 178A.
  • Deniz Kandiyoti, “Bargaining with Patriarchy,” Gender & Society 2(3), 1988, pp. 274–290.
  • Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power (1998); The Art of Seduction (2001). James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, The Sovereign Individual (1997).

Not confirmed

  • The verses of Charitar 1 and the interpretive split about Chandi; how the Charitar 2 frame resolves and the minister’s name.
  • The full plot of Rasalu and Kokila (Charitar 97 in one list); the ruler in Anoop Kaur as Guru Gobind Singh (an interpretation).
  • Persian verse numbers for the Zafarnama’s broken-oath passage.
  • The earliest source for the Bakala episode and for the Lalo and Bhago sakhi; the date and mechanism of the end of the Masand system.
  • The earliest source for the Ram Rai episode.
  • Whether the Blue Jackal sits in Book I or Book III in every recension.
  • Any scholar who links the Charitropakhyan frame to the Sindbad or Seven Sages tradition. We note the resemblance and claim no descent.

Corrections are welcome and will be logged here.