Indic traditions of science of wealth and power (arthashastra) and pragmatics, politics or statecraft(niti) over the ages have carried forward the key essence of statecraft in India in different forms. There are three texts as milestones dealing with statecraft in varying degrees on grand strategy, warfare and security related issues, military appreciations, diplomacy, intelligence studies, leadership, management, and morals The three Sanskrit texts with translations are the Arthashastra of Kautilya (4th century BCE to 3rd century CE), the Nitisara of Kamandaka (4th to 8th century CE), and The Sukraniti (8th century CE to 19th century CE). In recent scholarship sufficient literature now exists on Kautilya and Kamandaka. This book fills the void by critically examining The Sukraniti as translated in 1914 by Benoy Kunar Sarkar.

Colonel Pradeep Kumar Gautam (Retd) is a war veteran of 1971 war in Bangladesh and author of Operation Bangladesh (2007). His book Environmental Security: Internal and External Dimensions and Response was published under the aegis of the DRDO Chair at USI in 2003. From 2005 till 2019 he was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and later a consultant to the project ‘Indigenous Historical Knowledge.’ He has written extensively on environmental security, military and the environment, water, climate change, military affairs, and Tibet. He has authored edited chapters, articles and monographs on Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Kamandaka’s Nitisara, and The Kural. He is the co-editor of Indigenous Historical Knowledge: Kautilya and His Vocabulary, Volumes I, II and III (20015/2016). Since 2020, he is a subject matter expert, educator and  mentor for the Indian Culture Study Forum, College of Defence Management, Secunderabad. His recent lectures and presentations have been on Kautilya, The Kural, and Indian Strategic Thought at various army colleges and universities. Since September 2019 he is an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies (CMHCS), USI of India and        held the Maharana Pratap Chair for 2022/23 to research on  The Sukraniti.

He was one of the founding members of CMHCS/ USI project Udbhav in 2023.