The term Artha means asking for something, prayer, desire, resignation, wealth, money to be gained, objects of auditory perception,
things, objects, subjects of cognition with the help of sense organs– sound or touch, objects to be known, concerns about own state or other states, fruits of desire, one of the four kinds of Puruṣārtha, result, type, behaviour, accusation.
There is one term called ‘Puruṣārtha’ in the scriptures, that is, need of mankind. Mankind always runs after dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa,–
dharmārthakāmamokṣāśca udāhṛtāḥ
Artha is one of these four types of Puruṣārtha, which are also called caturvarga, where artha comes as the second after dharma.
When Yudhiṣṭhira was not willing to become the king, Arjuna brought in the terms of dharma and artha together, and said, “We are born in a royal family, we have won this kingdom with superhuman power, and now, why should we renounce that dharma-artha and go away to the forest again. Thus, Arjuna made it clear that the ‘artha’ varga is to be uttered always in relation to dharma.
In Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra, a meaning of ‘artha’ is given as ‘Puruṣārtha’. He writes– artha is the means of living for humankind. At the same time, he gīves another meaning of it– the land inhabited by people is also called artha.
manuṣyāṇāṃ vṛttirarthaḥ; manuṣyavatī bhūmirityarthaḥ.
Mahābhārata does not give a definite definition of artha-puruṣārtha, but it becomes clear from the epic narrative that ‘artha’ denotes wealth, piece of kingdom or some property of the king Arjuna says, one who lives by begging, and never tries to get wealth, never becomes famous in society, and never gets cattles, property ad friends. Citing king Nahuṣa, Arjuna says, lack of wealth only befits the recluses. Poverty is a kind of sin. Arjuna has praised artha as wealth, in the sense of puruṣārtha, and says that happiness derives from artha, and it is also related to dharma, kāma and svarga.