96 DEAR SON, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?communities between the eighth and fourteenth centuries in India.
While a constellation of advice texts such as Nasir Din Tusi's (1201-
1274) Akhlaq-i Nasiri and Zia Din Barani's (ca. 1285-1356) Fatawa-i fa-
handari and Amir Khusrau's Tughluqnama written in 1320, are ~resent
in any discussion on advice literature, scholarship is unclear on the
processes by which such a constellation came into being and how the
texts relate to each other.^34
Scholarship on Persian texts focuses on these influences from ear-
lier historiography within the genre of advice. Yet as Indic text of po-
litical theory, Chachnama also draws upon literary traditions that are
normatively understood to be outside of particularly "Muslim" po-
litical theory. Those texts are the Arthasastra and the Pancatantra.^35
I offer a short reading of some motifs from Chachnama that invoke
these Sanskrit texts to demonstrate the rich traditions that it draws
upon. It is likely that the stories, motifs, and axioms from these second-
or third-century texts found their way into Chachnama through oral
traditions in Sind or through textual-commentary traditions. My ef-
fort to read Chachnama in light of these Sanskrit texts is not to argue
for direct lineages but to highlight the interdependencies of political
theory in the early thirteenth century across literary cultures.
Arthasastra is often understood as a text belonging to Kautilya, a
minister for King Chandragupta Maurya (340-293 BCE).^36 In form and
content, Arthasdstra exemplifies the genre of "Mirror for Princes,"
wherein the ruling elite find advice for statecraft and governance in the
form of political dicta. Chachnama invokes such dicta as well, linking
itself to Indic political theory. Hajjaj's letter to Qasim, discussed previ-
ously, narrates the four ways in which a polity can be acquired: first
through consultation, alliances, and treaties, and relation; second
through expenditure of wealth and grants; third by knowing and un-
derstanding the ways and means of one's enemies; and fourth by dom-
inance, terror, magnificence, bravery, power, and strength. The four
ways in which a polity is acquired are referenced a number of times in
Chachnama and are similar to Arthasastra's repeated stress on the
four methods of acquiring territory: saman (adopting a conciliatory at-
titude and making alliances), dana (showering with rewards and gifts),
bheda (understanding and sowing dissension among enemies), and
danda (using force).^37 Hajjaj's advice to make grants and coopt opposi-