Five intelligence agencies and more...

श्रुतवन्तमुपधाशुद्धं मन्त्रिणं कुर्वीत ..

SRtavantaM upathA SuddhaM mantriNaM kurvIta (A well learned and purified by secret testing should be made as mantri)

 

मन्त्रमूलाः सर्वारम्भाः ..

mantra mUlAH sarva ArambhAH (A well thought strategy is a good seed of every endeavour)

 

Says cANakya in his rAjaniiti sUtras... Having purified the council of ministers consisting of Thought Leaders (mantris) and amAtyas, the next key activity is to identify the "secret agents" (because to have a right strategy one needs intelligence!)

 

The prime minister (the mantri) will initiate identifying the agents working for five different establishments of secret service.

 

kApaTika : One who can quickly "see" the secrets of others, bold, student is a kApaTika.
 

udAsthita : One who has been a sannyasi a period of time and returned to the regular life, who is upright / pure, intelligent person is udAsthita. (One who failed to continue as a sannyasi)
 

gRhapatika vyanjanakaH : One who has been a good farmer, but now failed in his profession.
 

vaidEhika vyanjanakaH : One who has been a good trader, but who has seen losses in his trade.
 

tApasa vyanjanakaH : One who is a failed tapasi. Who has tried for magical powers and partially successful, who seeks name and fame and not really given up the normal life in search of ultimate truth. (not a real tApaSi)
 

These five types of "failed" people are the best suited for secret services working for the Leader undercover and providing all the needed intelligence to run the organization.
 

The above five types of "secret agents" stay in their places and keep feeding intelligence to the minister.
 

Other than these five types, there are satri, tIkshNa, rasada, bhikshukI agents who keep roaming around within and outside the kingdom and carryout the duties of collecting the information and sending it to the King.

 

एवं शत्रौच मित्रे च मध्यमे चावपेच्चरान्
उदासीने च तेषां तीर्धेष्वष्ठादशस्वपि
 

There are four types of people King / Leader should generally deal with:

1. shatru - enemies 2. mitra - friend 3. madhyama - middle one (neither enemy nor a friend) and 4. udAsIna - the indifferent ones... In all the four types of other Kings and their mantris, purOhitas, amAtyas, and commanders should be spied to know what is going on within and outside of the territory regularly.

 

Few notes:

It is important to the King to know what is happening around in his own territory as well as in neighbouring territories.

The failed ones will know not only how to win, they have experience of what causes failure and coping with the failure. So, Leader should use those who have good knowledge in their own field and failed due to the conditions beyond their control to act as "secret agents".

This post covers the contents of 11th and 12th chapters of artha SAstra. (It has been a month since I started making these posts)