Indian Traditions of Management

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India is an advantageous position in the changing panorama of management, from one of pure economic culture to one of holistic approach, because of our religious and cultural heritage. The acquisition of wealth (Artha), developing a sadhanic personality (yoga), being committed to the truth and the right (Dharma), and believing in the almighty God as superior to man (Brahman) are all factors rooted in our tradition. Based on these, we can develop an appropriate management philosophy with a value system rooted to our cultural heritage, which could very well be the model of holistic management that we can offer to the whole world as India's contribution to managers for facing the challenges of the 21st century.

The fourteen articles included in Indian traditions of management will, we hope, make to a certain extends, a qualitative change in the studies on modern management principles.

I have great pleasure to publish Indian Traditions of Management as the fourteenth book in the Calicut University Sanskrit Series.

This book is a collection of papers, which, excepting two, were originally presented in the U.G.C. Sponsored National Seminar held on 30-31 January 2002, in connection with the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the Department of Sanskrit, University of Calicut.

"India is in an advantageous position in the changing panorama of management, from one of pure economic culture to one of holistic approach, because of our religious and cultural heritage. The acquisition of wealth (Artha), developing a sadhanic personality (Yoga), being committed to the truth and the right (Dharma), and believing in the almighty God as superior to man (Brahman) are all factors rooted in our tradition. Based on these, we can develop an appropriate management philosophy with a value system rooted to our cultural heritage, which could very well be the Model of Holistic Management that we can offer to the whole world as India's contribution to managers for facing the challenges of the 21st century". (V. K. S. Menon, p.14) It was, in fact, with this kind of view in mind that the Department of Sanskrit proposed to conduct a Seminar on Indian Traditions of Management. When the Seminar was over, a proposal came to the effect that the papers presented therein should be collected and published. We think that this sort of a book is the need of the hour. In the first article entitled "Management and Indian Heritage", V.K.S. Menon invites our attention to the holistic approach of Indian cultural heritage and describes the contributions of seven Management Gurus in India, namely, Buddha, Charaka, Vishnu Sharma, Tiruvalluvar, Chanakya, Kautilya and Vyasa.

In the second paper, Dr.H.V.Shankaranarayana establishes that Indian management thought is a way of life.

Prof. N. Ranganathan deals with the topic of ethics in Business Management with special reference to teaching the subject.

The fourth essay on managerial values and business ethics stresses on value-based management imperatives. The author of that article, Prof P.N. Shetty, enriches the value of it giving a lot of personal experiences.

Dr. C. Rajendran has contributed two papers. In the first of them, he deals with Sanskrit resources for contemporary problems in management. In the other, he discusses the management principles in the organization of sacrifices.

Dr. K. N. N. Elayath, in his article given as the sixth, assesses the contribution of Indian philosophy to Human Resource Management (HRM) with all its details.

Organizational transformation through values is the topic of the seventh essay of this book, authored by Dr. P Mohan. He concludes his paper as follows: "Just like there should be balance between left hemisphere and right hemisphere of human brain the eastern spirituality and the western materialism need to fuse into each other to generate a new world of contentment and joy for all." (p.100)

In the eighth paper, Dr.C.V Jayamani discusses the modern rnanagemen t principles as reflected in the Bhagavad Gita.

Dr.N.V.P. Unithiri, in the next article, gives a detailed content analysis of the Bhagavad Gita and concludes that it can be considered as a text book of crisis management. Dr. Unithiri, in another essay, summarises the management principles in Bhartrihari's Nitisataka.

Dr.P Manoharan makes a study of the Brihat Samhita with emphasis on the management principles dealt with therein.

In the twelfth and thirteenth essays Dr.P.V. Ramankutty and Anandakrishnan Kunholathillath deal with respectively the revenue and Financial Management in Kautilya's Arthasastra.

In short, this collection of articles on Indian traditions of management will, we hope, make, to a certain extent, a qualitative change in the studies on modern management principles.

As in the case of other CUSS books, we wish, this volume will also be wholeheartedly welcomed by the scholarly world.