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Chanakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya) (c. 350-283 BC) was an adviser and a prime minister¹ to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340-293 BC), and architect of his rise to power. Kautilya and Vishnugupta, the names by which the ancient Indian political treatise called the Arthaśāstra identifies its author, are traditionally identified with Chanakya.² Some scholars consider Chanakya to be "the pioneer economist of the world"³. He is known as "The Indian Machiavelli" in the Western world.⁴ Chanakya was a professor at Takshashila University and is widely believed to be responsible for the creation of Mauryan empire, the first of its kind on the Indian subcontinent.

Identity

He is generally called Chanakya⁵ but, in his capacity as author of the Arthaśhāstra, is generally referred to as Kautilya.⁶ The Arthaśhāstra identifies its author by the name Kautilya,² except for one verse which refers to him by the name Vishnugupta.⁷ One of the earliest Sanskrit literature to explicitly identify Chanakya with Vishnugupta was Vishnu Sarma's Panchatantra in the 3rd century BC.⁸

K.C. Ojha puts forward the view that the traditional identification of Vishnugupta with Kautilya was caused by a confusion of editor and originator and suggests that Vishnugupta was a redactor of the original work of Kautilya.² Thomas Burrow goes even further and suggests that Chanakya and Kautilya may have been two different people.⁹

Works

Legend

Thomas R. Trautmann lists the following elements as common to different forms of the Chanakya legend¹⁰:

Jain version

According to Jaina accounts¹¹ Chānakya was born in the village of Caṇaka in the Golla district to Caṇin and Caṇeśvarī, a Maga Brahmin couple¹⁰.

Death of Chanakya

Chanakya lived to a ripe old age and died around 283 BC and was cremated by his grandson/disciple Radhagupta who succeeded Rakshasa Katyayan (great-grand son of Prabuddha Katyayan, who attained Nirvana during the same period as Gautam Budhha) as Prime Minister of the Maurya Empire and was instrumental in backing Ashoka to the throne. There were three non-traditional belief paths in society those days, Jaina, Buddhist and Ajivaka. Ajivaka practising Chanakya brought about the downfall of the Jaina Nandas and their coterie of Jaina ministers. (Chanakya 's uncle was Jain, too, and a group of Jains backed Chanakya in his political machinations). Later on, Chandragupta Maurya took Jainism on abdicating his throne which passed to his Son Bindusara who was an Ajivaka. Even Ashoka was practising Ajivaka who before accession to throne became Buddhist. Bindusara was born before his father ever became Emperor so the below legend is definitely not true. Ashoka's daughter was married in 265 BC and his son Kunala was 18 years of age in 269 BC which means that even the princes married early, Ashoka was born 310 BC and Bindusara around 330 BC. Bindusara means one who encompasses all that is need to be known.

Later on, Ajivikism which was the official religion of the empire since the Kalinga War (261 BC) and for 14 years afterwards, declined and merged into traditional Hinduism. What has been left are a mish mash of contradictory Buddhist and Jaina legends which are even rejected by Sinhalese chronicles.

According to a legend which is a later jaina invention, while Chanakya served as the Prime Minister of Chandragupta Maurya, he started adding small amounts of poison in Chandragupta's food so that he would get used to it. The aim of this was to prevent the Emperor from being poisoned by enemies. One day the queen, Durdha, shared the food with the Emperor while she was pregnant. Since she was not used to eating poisoned food, she died. Chanakya decided that the baby should not die; hence he cut open the belly of the queen and took out the baby. A drop (bindu in Sanskrit) of poison had passed to the baby's head, and hence Chanakya named him Bindusara. Bindusara would go on to become a great king and to father the greatest Mauryan Emperor since Chandragupta - Asoka.

When Bindusara became a youth, Chandragupta gave up the throne and followed the Jain saint Bhadrabahu to present day Karnataka and settled in a place known as Shravana Belagola. He lived as an ascetic for some years and died of voluntary starvation according to Jain tradition.

Chanakya meanwhile stayed as the Prime Minister of Bindusara. Bindusara also had a minister named Subandhu who did not like Chanakya. One day he told Bindusara that Chanakya was responsible for the murder of his mother. Bindusara asked the nurses who confirmed this story and he became very angry with Chanakya.

It is said that Chanakya, on hearing that the Emperor was angry with him, thought that anyway he was at the end of his life. He donated all his wealth to the poor, widows and orphans and sat on a dung heap, prepared to die by total abstinence from food and drink. Bindusara meanwhile heard the full story of his birth from the nurses and rushed to beg forgiveness of Chanakya. But Chanakya would not relent. Bindusara went back and vent his fury on Subandhu, who asked for time to beg for forgiveness from Chanakya.

Subandhu, who still hated Chanakya, wanted to make sure that Chanakya did not return to the city. So he arranged for a ceremony of respect, but unnoticed by anyone, slipped a smoldering charcoal ember inside the dung heap. Aided by the wind, the dung heap swiftly caught fire, and the man behind the Mauryan Empire and the author of Arthashastra was burned to death.

His main philosophy was "A debt should be paid off till the last penny; An enemy should be destroyed without a trace". Ironically, Subandhu followed his main philosophy and destroyed him without a trace.

Pali version

Other versions

The classical Sanskrit play by Vishakhadatta, Mudrarakshasa, is one popular source of Chankaya lore. (The play has been dated between 4th and 9th century CE).

A South Indian group of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu called Sholiyar or Chozhiyar, claim that Chanakya was one of them. Though this may sound very improbable, considering the vast distance between present day Tamilnadu in the south and Magadha in Bihar, it finds curious echos in the Abhidhānchintāmani, where Hemachandra claims that Chankya was a Dramila¹²("Dramila" is believed to be the root of the word "Dravida" by some scholars).

There is also a claim that Chanakya belonged to the Brahmin group from the present day Kerala who are considered to have been brought there by Parashurama. Considering the fact that Adi Sankara who revived Hinduism by setting up four monasteries in the four corners of India also belonged to that group, now known as Nambudiri Brahmins, this claim too merits attention. This further goes to contradict the story of his death also. In true Hindu tradition he is said to have persuaded King Chandragupta Maurya to forsake his throne and to join him in moving to the last phase of one's life viz. Sanyasa. Accordingly, he took the King along with him to South India where both of them carried prolonged meditation and finally achieved Moksha.

In his early years he was tutored extensively in the Vedas - Chanakya memorized them completely at a very early age.^{verification needed} He was also taught mathematics, geography and science along with religion.^{verification needed} Later he travelled to Taxila, where he became a teacher of politics.^{verification needed} Chanakya taught subjects using the best of practical knowledge acquired by the teachers. The age of entering the University was sixteen. The branches of study most sought after around India at that time ranged from law, medicine, warfare and other disciplines. Two of his more famous students were Bhadrabhatta and Purushdutta.^{verification needed}

Political turmoil in Western India at that time caused by Greek invasion forced Chanakya to leave the University environment for the city of Pataliputra (presently known as Patna, in the state of Bihar, India), which was ruled by the Nanda king Dhanananda. Although Chanakya initially prospered in his relations with the ruler, being a blunt person he was soon disliked by Dhanananda. This ended with Chanakya being removed from an official position he enjoyed.

According to the Kashmiri version of his legend, Chāṇakya a thorn had pricked his foot, he uprooted the tree and poured buttermilk in the roots . ¹⁴

Media

In modern India

The diplomatic enclave in New Delhi is named Chanakyapuri in honour of Chanakya.

References

^ Boesche, Roger (January 2003). "Kautilya's Arthaśāstra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India". The Journal of Military History 67 (1): 9–37. doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0006. ISSN 0899-3718. "Kautilya [is] sometimes called a chancellor or prime minister to Chandragupta, something like a Bismarck…"
^ ^a ^b ^c Mabbett, I. W. (April 1964). "The Date of the Arthaśhāstra". Journal of the American Oriental Society 84 (2): 162–169. doi:10.2307/597102. ISSN 0003-0279.
^ L. K. Jha, K. N. Jha (1998). "Chanakya: the pioneer economist of the world", International Journal ertrtrtrtof Social Economics 25 (2-4), p. 267-282.
^ Herbert H. Gowen (1929). "The Indian Machiavelli" or Political Theory in India Two Thousand Years Ago, Political Science Quarterly 44 (2), p. 173-192.
^ Trautmann, Thomas R. (1971). Kautilya and the Arthaśhāstra: A Statistical Investigation of the Authorship and Evolution of the Text. Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 10.
^ Trautmann 1971:10 "while in his character as author of an arthaśhāstra he is generally referred to by his gotra name, Kautilya."
^ Mabbett 1964
Trautmann 1971:5 "the very last verse of the work...is the unique instance of the personal name Vishnugupta rather than the gotra name Kautilya in the Arthaśhāstra.
^ Mabbett 1964: "References to the work in other Sanskrit literature attribute it variously to Vishnugupta, Chanakya and Kautilya. The same individual is meant in each case. The Pańcatantra explicitly identifies Chanakya with Vishnugupta."
^ Trautmann 1971:67 'T. Burrow ("Cāṇakya and Kauṭalya", Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 48–49 1968, p. 17 ff.) has now shown that Cāṇakya is also a gotra name, which in conjunction with other evidence makes it clear that we are dealing with two distinct persons, the minister Cāṇakya of legend and Kauṭilya the compiler of the Arthaśāstra. Furthermore, this throws the balance of evidence in favor of the view that the second name was originally spelt Kauṭalya and that after the compiler of the Arth. came to be identified with the Mauryan minister it was altered to Kautilya (as it appears in Āryaśūra, Viśākhadatta and Bāna) for the sake of the pun. We must then assume that the later spelling subsequently replaced the earlier in the gotra lists and elsewhere.'
^ ^a ^b ^c Trautmann 1971:"The Chāṇakya-Chandragupta-Kathā"
^ the Pariśiṣṭa Parvan by Hemacandra
^ R.C. Majumdar, A. D. Pusalker, A. K. Majumdar et al,The History and Culture of the Indian People - The age of imperial unity, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, 1962
^ Chanakya-Niti
^ Trautmann 1971:31

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