India, Nov. 13 -- Acentury ago, a quiet scholarly breakthrough unfolded in erstwhile Mysore, when R Shamasastry, a pioneering epigraphist, unearthed and translated Kautilya's Arthashastra, an ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy, with manuscripts preserved on fragile strips of dried palm-leaf. Shamasastry is the great-great-grandfather of Caltech computer scientist and professor Anima Anandkumar, who drew a link between her expertise - Artificial Intelligence - and the storied history of her family. "UNESCO recognised Arthashastra as one of the treasures from India. And I have a really interesting connection that my great-great-grandfather discovered Kautilya's Arthashastra more than a centu...