What are the seven elements of the state according to kautilya?

Kauṭilya, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Kauṭilya answers

The king, the minister, the country, the fort, the treasury, the army and the friend: these seven, together with the enemy, are the elements of sovereignty.1 The enemy is named among them because a state is known by what stands against it, but when the elements are counted as the limbs of a kingdom, the enemy is excepted and seven remain, each to be possessed of its excellent characteristics.2

They are called limbs for a reason. A body whose limbs are sound moves as one, and a body whose limbs are weak is carried by the strongest of them. A wise king can make even the poor and miserable elements of his sovereignty happy and prosperous, but a wicked king will destroy the most prosperous and loyal elements of his kingdom.2 So the elements are not a list to be counted once; they are what the king tends, and his own quality governs the quality of all the rest.

The king stands first because he is the fountain of policy. His best qualities are high birth, valour, truthfulness, gratitude, large aims, enthusiasm without procrastination, and the intellect to inquire, hear, retain, reflect and adhere to conclusions.1 The minister's qualifications I have described elsewhere in the treatise, at its beginning, middle and close, and I do not repeat them here.1

The country, the fort, the treasury and the army are the other four that a circle of states is made of, each king in the circle possessing them along with his minister.3 The reckoning has a use. Each of the twelve primary kings has these elements, and the number of elements of a circle follows from them; this is how I arrive at sixty elements of sovereignty and seventy-two elements of states.3

When you wish to measure your own strength against a neighbour's, you weigh him element by element. The end of the matter is this: a wise king trained in politics, though he hold but a small territory, can conquer the whole earth with the help of the best-fitted elements of his sovereignty, and he will never be defeated.24567

Sources

  1. The king, the minister, the country, the fort, the treasury, the army and the friend, and the enemy are the elements of sovereignty.
    Arthasastra
  2. Excepting the enemy, these seven elements, possessed of their excellent characteristics, are said to be the limb-like elements of sovereignty.
    Arthasastra
  3. A wise king can make even the poor and miserable elements of his sovereignty happy and prosperous; but a wicked king will surely destroy the most prosperous and loyal elements of his kingdom.
    Arthasastra
  4. The qualifications of a minister have been described in the beginning, middle, and at the closed of the work.
    Arthasastra
  5. As each of these three kings possesses the five elements of sovereignty, such as the minister, the country, the fort, the treasury, and the army, a circle of states consists of eighteen elements.
    Arthasastra
  6. Thus there are four primary Circles of States, twelve kings, sixty elements of sovereignty, and seventy-two elements of states.
    Arthasastra
  7. But a wise king, trained in politics, will, though he possesses a small territory, conquer the whole earth with the help of the best fitted elements of his sovereignty, and will never be defeated.
    Arthasastra