Who was Chanakya ?

Chanakya was the pioneer of economic. He was the first person to write one economics. He created the Arthashastra, which holds significance even today – more than 2000 years after Chanakya died.

His reference toeconomy is still revered to this day. He is credited with being the pioneer in the development of finance and administration.

Talking of economics and Chanakya’s visions, here is a quick story that has been handed down to us through legends. According to the story, Greek ethnographer Megasthenes visited India during Chandragupta’s rule. During that time, he became a friend of Chanakya and visited Chanakya at his place one evening only to see Chanakya working on state documents.

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

Apart from the economics, he also devised Chanakya Neeti as the reference point for politics and Neetishastra as the reference for bureaucracy.

Chanakya requested him to wait and when Chanakya finished his work, he put of the lamp that he was using for his work. After that, Chanakya lit another lamp and came to meet Megasthenes. Megasthenes questioned the need for putting off one lamp and lighting another while he could have easily used the one that was already burning. To this Chanakya explained that the lamp he was using was funded by state for the work he was doing for the state. The current lamp (the one that he lit later) was for his personal use and further explained that one should not use state funds for personal use.

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.

Chanakya acted as the administrator of the biggest empire in He helped Chandragupta Maurya in the unification process of the nation and stayed as the mastermind behind the handling of the matters of the nation.

About Chanakya’s death, there are two legends. It is said that Chanakya died in 283 BCE. The most commonly accepted fact is that he went to a jungle and starved himself to death. Equally accepted theory is that there was a minister in Samrat Bindusara’s court by the name of Subandhu. Subandhu hated Chanakya and in order to remove him from power, Sabandhu told Bindusara about the death of his mother (Chandragupta Maurya’s wife) but portrayed that Chanakya was responsible for her death and that Chanakya intentionally did that.

Chanakya devised plans to stop the advancing army of Alexander in the invading of the kingdom of India. He used different tricks to counter their growing stature.

Upon hearing the story Bindusara became angry and decided to kill Chanakya. However Chanakya decided to end his own life once he learned that Samrat Bindusara hated him. He decided to do so by starving himself to death. However, Bindusara soon realized his mistake after knowing the entire truth and asked Subandhu to convince Chanakya to stop starving. Subandhu however wanted to see Chanakya dead. Instead of listening to Bindusara, he organized a ceremony pretending that it was for Chanakya and burned Chanakya alive on a pyre.

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.

He used the infamous ‘Vishkanyas’ to infiltrate the ranks of Alexander’s army.

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.

As per legends, the poisons fed to the girls made them so deadly that even their kisses could easily kill a person.

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.

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

Chanakya’s father, Acharya Chanak was a teacher and a revered scholar himself. His father was one part of the Takshila University and the nation’s trust funds.
His father involved him in the education from a very early age.

It is said that Chanakya was so intelligent that he had a solution to every problem that showed up. It is also said that apart from being a pioneer economist and a politician, he even achieved the knowledge of astronomy and medicine.

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.

Chanakya started as a teacher in the Takshila University. Takshila University was a pioneer in education and information around the nation.
Many subjects were taught in the university that ranged from science, commerce, astronomy, geography and more.

It is said that the real name of Chanakya was Vishnugupta and he was a minister at the court of Dhana Nanda – a ruler of Nanda Dynasty that built up the Magadha Empire.

Having been educated at the Takshila University, he was exposed to different strategies and studies from an early age. He has a nous to find solutions to every problem on theboard.

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.

He was a successful strategist who devised multiple techniques and tricks of the trade to counter any situation.