Who was Chanakya ?

Chanakya was died in 283 BC. There are many versions of stories regarding the death of Chanakya. Some says that after his retirement he went to jungle and died there. Some says that he was died because of the conspiracy of Subandhu, a minister of the Bindusara’s court.

Chanakya was died in 283 BC. There are many versions of stories regarding the death of Chanakya. Some says that after his retirement he went to jungle and died there. Some says that he was died because of the conspiracy of Subandhu, a minister of the Bindusara’s court.

Born in 371 BC, Chanakya has been traditionally identified as Kautilya or Vishnugupta.

Vishnugupta was actually a redactor of Kautilya’s original work, which suggests that Kautilya and Vishnugupta are different people.

the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford even claims that Kautilya and Chanakya may not have been the same people.

Chanakya’s ambitions took flight when he was insulted by the emperor of the Nanda dynasty, who ruled the Magadha kingdom in India. At that time, Magadha was the most prominent empire in India while other parts were separate states.

Taking the insult to his heart, Chanakya became an ally of Chandragupta Maurya—who had been exiled from the Nanda family.

Chanakya helped Chandragupta form a small army, and entered Pataliputra, the capital of the Magadha kingdom and ignited a civil war there, using his intelligence network.

Chandragupta eventually won over the throne in 322 BC, ending the Nanda dynasty and beginning the rule of his Maurya dynasty. This dynasty would be in power until 185 BC.

Arthashatra, a Sanskrit book that means “The Science of Material Gain” is the philosopher’s guide to running an empire. Although the book was considered to be lost for many centuries, a copy of it, written on palm leaves, was rediscovered in 1904 AD.

In this book, the scholar writes in detail about diplomacy and war. His take is extremely practical and unemotional.

The life of Chanakya has been described in four different versions—The Buddhist version, the Jain version, the Kashmiri version and Vishakhadatta’s Sanskrit Mudrarakshasa version

Apart from this, the scholar has even studied the various Indian shastras and compiled its multiple lessons into ‘Chanakya Niti’ or ‘Chanakya Niti Shastra.’

Chanakya died in 283 BC in Pataliputra. Throughout his life, he had been in service of the Maurya emperors and passed away during the reign of Bindusara, Chandragupta’s son. Some believe that he starved himself to death while others think that court conspiracies led to his demise.

Chanakya is considered as extremely cunning and shrewd politician. He is also known as one of the earliest economists of ancient India.

Ashwin Sangi wrote a book known as Chanakya’s Chant in which Sangi claims that it was Chanakya who was responsible for uniting entire nation when India was attacked by Alexander the Great.

There are many legends which state that Chanakya actually maintained an army of females. These women were known as Vishakanyas. As per legends, Vishakanyas were extremely beautiful girls who were given small doses of poisons every day along with food.

Because of the small doses of poison, the girls grew resistant to any kind of poisoning. Not just that, it is believed that the girls were given poison until they reached puberty and then they were used for secret assassination mission.

One of the most interesting of Chanakya facts is that Chanakya’s views on women were not really great. Those views might have been accepted in ancient times but in modern times, they are considered as disgusting views. According to him, women are not trustworthy for they have corrupt and vile nature.

If that’s not enough, here is another view that Chanakya held – a woman can attain purity only if she drinks the water that has been used for cleansing or washing the feet of her husband.

Chanakya’s views about an ideal wife were a bit twisted too. According to him, an ideal wife should have the following characteristics:

In the morning, she should be serving her husband like a mother serves her son.
In the noon, she should be ‘loving and caring’ towards her husband like a sister is to her brother.

According to many historians, Chanakya was born in 350 BCE and that he had a very manipulative nature that helped in the formation of Maurya Dynasty – one of the largest dynasties ever known in ancient India.

Legends say that Chanakya was not really happy with the strategies used by Dhana Nanda to rule the empire. Then at one point, the Greeks reached India’s western border. With India being threatened by foreign invasion, Chanakya talked to Dhana Nanda to redo his strategies.

Kautilya (also known as Chanakya, c. 350-275 BCE) was an Indian statesman and philosopher, chief advisor and Prime Minister of the Indian Emperor Chandragupta, the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire.

Chanakya was a philosopher, economist, and statesman who wrote the Indian political treatise, the ‘Arthashastra’ (Economics). In this seminal work he had compiled almost every aspect of what had been written in India up to that time regarding property, economics, or material success.