Classics like the Panchatantra or Vetala Panchavimshati were neither meant solely for children nor for illiterate folk. Entertaining and edifying, they were written for princes and kings, ministers and courtiers who are still amidst us, albeit in disguise, with the same motivations and ambitions. They also addressed the experts who peddled knowledge as a panacea for all political ills. The aversion to bookish learning among those ambitious and eager for real action and realpolitik exists even today.

 In Virtue and Human Ends, Vasanthi Srinivasan revisits some of our most well-known ancient Indian texts Panchatantra, Hitopadesha, Vetala Panchavimshati, Dasakumaracharita, Arthashastra, and Mudrarakshasa to see what they tell us about the art and nature of governance, statecraft, policy (niti), war and peace, foes and allies, but also the equally important ideas of virtue, friendship, svadharma, loyalty, prudence, justice, love, desire, good and evil, and the ability to judge rightly and act well regarding these human ends. She also challenges the misplaced but common notion that what we glean from comics and ‘popular’ narratives is ‘literature’, but not ‘political thought’.