Date of Award
17-8-2025
Document Type
Thesis
School
School of Arts, Sciences, Humanities & Education
Programme
Ph.D.-Doctoral of Philosophy
First Advisor
Dr.S.Thiagarajan
Second Advisor
Prof.B.Mahadevan
Keywords
Shishupalavadha, Leadership Skills, Behaviours, Effective Communication
Abstract
Management of organizations, people, and entities has been a subject matter of great interest today. Schools of business and management were established in the West about 125 years ago, and countries in other parts of the world, including India, simply followed these practices. Consequently, there is a widespread feeling today that management concepts originated in the West. All Indian business schools teach management concepts propounded by Western scholars in the last 100 years or so.
Going by the first principles, whenever multiple people, resources, entities, and institutions are involved, there is a requirement for Management. This implies that management as a concept must be as old as rocks and rivers. While civilizations flourished in the West only in the last two millennia, countries such as India has had established civilizations running to several millennia in the past. This naturally raises the question of whether management thoughts and concepts were practised in ancient times in India. This thesis makes an effort to address this critical question. In particular, the thesis seeks to explore the following questions in some detail:
(a) Are there management concepts and practices that were practised in India in ancient times?
(b) Based on a study of a specific text pertaining to the ancient tie period, is it possible to distill some management concepts?
(c) What can current-day organizations learn from the insights gathered from such a study? Are there a few workable ideas that current-day organizations need to imbibe?
(d) India has a vast repository of literary resources spanning more than three millennia. Therefore, choosing a specific scripture to study for the purpose of this thesis requires careful consideration. Based on the scrutiny of the existing studies about management thoughts in Indian scriptures and discussion with some experts, the following criteria were applied to identify the scripture to be taken up for the current study:
a) It must be more than one thousand years old.
b) It must have more than one thousand slokas, providing a greater opportunity for investigating management concepts.
c) It should be a well-known literary work – this will ensure a certain standard of the work and greater appeal for the insights derived from the study.
d) It should not have been studied extensively by earlier researchers – popular scriptures such as Rāmāyanām, Mahābhāratam, and Gitā have been studied by many to distill management thoughts. By taking up such works that others have already considered, the marginal value addition may be minimal.
e) A preliminary list of works was shortlisted for our consideration. The list includes Rāmāyanā, Mahābhārathā, Bhagavad Gitā, Arthaśāstrā, Viduranīti and Śiśupālavadha.
Researchers have already provided enough research reports on management concepts from Rāmāyanā, Mahābhārathā, Bhagavad Gitā & Arthaśāstrā. Earlier researchers have submitted various concepts on principles of good governance, such as respect management, decision, reputation, team & character management, management sciences from Sundara Kandam, leadership lessons from Rāmāyanā, etc.
Hence, based on a thorough analysis and considering all the above criteria, it was finally decided to take up Śiśupālavadha for a detailed study. This excellent poem by Māgha shows us his fantastic vocabulary, comparisons, and significant meanings. We should all be immensely proud to have had these kinds of marvellous poets, fabulously wealthy in literacy, knowledge, and culture, in the past centuries.
Recommended Citation
V, Sathyanarayanan Mr, "Management concepts in Shishupalavadha" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 137.
https://knowledgeconnect.sastra.edu/theses/137