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Chanakya
An artist's impression of Chanakya
Born	c. 370 BCE
Died	c. 283 BCE Patliputra
Other names	Kauṭilya, Vishnugupta
Alma mater	Takshashila
Occupation(s)	Professor; advisor of Chandragupta Maurya
Known for	Foundation of the Maurya Empire
Notable work	Arthashastra (authorship disputed), Chanakya Neeti

Chanakya (pronunciation; c. 370–283 BCE) was an Indian teacher, philosopher, and royal advisor.

Originally a professor of economics and political science at the ancient Takshashila University, Chanakya managed the first Maurya emperor Chandragupta's rise to power at a young age. He is widely credited for having played an important role in the establishment of the Maurya Empire, which was the first empire in archaeologically recorded history to rule most of the Indian subcontinent. Chanakya served as the chief advisor to both Chandragupta and his son Bindusara.

Chanakya is traditionally identified as Kautilya or Vishnu Gupta, who authored the ancient Indian political treatise called Arthasastra (Economics). As such, he is considered as the pioneer of the field of economics and political science in India, and his work is thought of as an important precursor to classical economics. His works were lost near the end of the Gupta dynasty and not rediscovered until 1915.

Origin

Sources of information

There is little purely historical information about Chanakya: most of it comes from semi-legendary accounts. Thomas R. Trautmann identifies four distinct accounts of the ancient Chankya-Chandragupta katha (legend):

The following elements are common to these legends:

• The King Dhana Nanda insults Chanakya, prompting Chanakya to swear revenge and destroy the Nanda Empire
• Chanakya searches for one worthy successor to the Nanda and finds the young Chandragupta Maurya
• With the help of some allies, Chanakya and Chandragupta bring down the Nanda empire, often using manipulative and secretive means

Birth

Chanakya's birthplace is a matter of controversy, and there are multiple theories about his origin. According to the Buddhist text Mahavamsa Tika, his birthplace was Taxila. The Jain scriptures, such as Adbidhana Chintamani, mention him as a Dramila, implying that he was a native of South India. According to the Jain writer Hemachandra's Parishishtaparva, Chanakya was born in the Canaka village of the Golla region, to a Jain Brahmin named Canin and his wife Canesvari. Other sources mention his father's name as Chanak and state that Chanakya's name derives from his father's name. According to some sources, Chanakya was Brahmin from north India, scholar in Vedas, and a devotee of Lord Vishnu. According to Jain accounts he became Jain in old age like Chandragupta Maurya.

Identification with Kautilya or Vishnugupta

The ancient treatise Arthashastra has been traditionally attributed to Chanakya by a number of scholars. The Arthaśhāstra identifies its author by the name Kautilya, except for one verse that refers to him by the name Vishnugupta. Kautilya is presumably the name of the author's gotra (clan).

One of the earliest Sanskrit literatures to identify Chanakya with Vishnugupta explicitly was Vishnu Sharma's Panchatantra in the 3rd century BC.

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

Early life

Chanakya was educated at Takshashila, an ancient centre of learning located in north-western ancient India (present-day Pakistan). He later became a teacher (acharya) at the same place. Chanakya's life was connected to two cities: Takshashila and Pataliputra (present-day Patna in Bihar, India). Pataliputra was the capital of the Magadha kingdom, which was connected to Takshashila by Uttarapatha, the northern high road of commerce.

After the establishment of the Maurya Empire

Chanakya continued to serve as an advisor to Chandragupta after the establishment of the Maurya Empire. According to a popular legend mentioned in the Jain texts, Chanakya used to add small doses of poison to the food eaten by Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (mithridatism) in order to make him immune to the poisoning attempts by the enemies. Unaware, Chandragupta once fed some of his food to his queen, Durdhara, who was seven days away from delivery. The queen, not immune to the poison, collapsed and died within a few minutes. In order to save the heir to the throne, Chanakya cut the queen's belly open and extracted the foetus just as she died. The baby was named Bindusara, because he was touched by a drop (bindu) of blood having poison.

When Bindusara was in his youth, Chandragupta gave up the throne and followed the Jain saint Bhadrabahu to present day Karnataka and settled in the place of Shravana Belagola. He lived as an ascetic for some years and died of voluntary starvation according to Jain tradition. Chanakya meanwhile stayed in the court as an advisor to Bindusara.

Death

According to one legend, Chanakya retired to the jungle and starved himself to death. According to another legend mentioned by the Jain writer Hemachandra, Chanakya died as a result of a conspiracy by Subandhu, one of Bindusara's ministers. Subandhu, who did not like Chanakya, told Bindusara that Chanakya was responsible for the murder of his mother. Bindusara asked the nurses, who confirmed the story of his birth. Bindusara was horrified and enraged. When Chanakya, who was an old man by this time, learned that the King was angry with him, he decided to end his life. In accordance with the Jain tradition, he decided to starve himself to death. By this time, the King had found out the full story: Chanakya was not directly responsible for his mother's death, which was an accident. He asked Subandhu to convince Chanakya to give up his plan to kill himself. However, Subandhu, pretending to conduct a ceremony for Chanakya, burned Chanakya alive.

Literary works

Two books are attributed to Chanakya: Arthashastra and Neetishastra (also known as Chanakya Niti).

The Arthashastra discusses monetary and fiscal policies, welfare, international relations, and war strategies in detail. The text also outlines the duties of a ruler. Some scholars believe that Arthashastra is actually a compilation of a number of earlier texts written by various authors, and Chanakya might have been one of these authors.

Neetishastra is a treatise on the ideal way of life, and shows Chanakya's deep study of the Indian way of life. Chanakya also developed Neeti-Sutras (aphorisms – pithy sentences) that tell people how they should behave. Of these well-known 455 sutras, about 216 refer to raja-neeti (the do's and don't's of running a kingdom). Apparently, Chanakya used these sutras to groom Chandragupta and other selected disciples in the art of ruling a kingdom.

Legacy

Arthashastra is serious manual on statecraft, on how to run a state, informed by a higher purpose, clear and precise in its prescriptions, the result of practical experience of running a state. It is not just a normative text but a realist description of the art of running a state.

Chanakya is regarded as a great thinker and diplomat in India. Many Indian nationalists regard him as one of the earliest people who envisaged the united India spanning the entire subcontinent. India's National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon praised Chanakya's Arthashastra for its clear and precise rules which apply even today. Furthermore, he recommended reading of the book for broadening the vision on strategic issues.

The diplomatic enclave in New Delhi is named Chanakyapuri in honour of Chanakya. Institutes named after him include Training Ship Chanakya, Chanakya National Law University and Chanakya Institute of Public Leadership. Chanakya circle in Mysore has been named after him.

Film and television

• Television series Chanakya is archetypal account of the life and times of Chanakya, based on the play Mudra Rakshasaa (The Signet Ring of "Rakshasaa")
• Indian popular Hindi channel NDTV Imagine started a Biographical series on the life of Chandragupta Maurya and his teacher, Chanakya, produced by Sagar Arts. The series is named Chandragupta Maurya.
• The song "Make My" by The Roots from their 2011 album undun features a quote attributed to Chanakya: "A man is born alone and dies alone; he experiences the good and the bad and the consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme Abode"
• The story of Chanakya and Chandragupta was taken as film in Telugu language in 1977 entitled Chanakya Chandragupta. Akkineni Nageswara Rao played the role of Chanakya, while N. T. Rama Rao portrayed as Chandragupta.

Books and academia

• An English-language book titled Chanakya on Management contains 216 sutras on raja-neeti, each of which has been translated and commented upon.
• A book written by Ratan Lal Basu and Rajkumar Sen deals with the economic concepts mentioned in Arthasashtra and their relevance for the modern world.
• In 2009, many eminent experts discussed the various aspects of Kautilya's thought in an International Conference held at the Oriental Research Institute in Mysore (India) to celebrate the centenary of discovery of the manuscript of the Arthashastra by R. Shamasastry. Most of the papers presented in the Conference have been compiled in an edited volume by Raj Kumar Sen and Ratan Lal Basu.
• Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi is a fictional account of Chanakya's life as a political strategist in ancient India. The novel relates two parallel stories, the first of Chanakya and his machinations to bring Chandragupta Maurya to the throne of Magadha; the second, that of a modern-day character called Gangasagar Mishra who makes it his ambition to position a slum child as Prime Minister of India.
• Kautilya's role in the formation of the Maurya Empire is the essence of a historical/spiritual novel Courtesan and the Sadhu by Mysore N. Prakash.
• Chanakya's contribution to the cultural heritage of Bharat (in Kannada) by Shatavadhani Ganesh with the title Bharatada Samskrutige Chanakyana Kodugegalu.
• Pavan Choudary. Chanakya's Political Wisdom. Wisdom Village Publications Division. ISBN 978-81-906555-0-7., a political commentary on Chanakya

References

1. ^ V. K. Subramanian (1980). Maxims of Chanakya: Kautilya. Abhinav Publications. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-8364-0616-0. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
2. S. K. Agarwal (1 September 2008). Towards Improving Governance. Academic Foundation. p. 17. ISBN 978-81-7188-666-1. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
3. ^ Mabbett, I. W. (1964). "The Date of the Arthaśāstra". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 84 (2). American Oriental Society: 162–169. doi:10.2307/597102. JSTOR 597102. ISSN 0003-0279.
4. L. K. Jha, K. N. Jha (1998). "Chanakya: the pioneer economist of the world", International Journal of Social Economics 25 (2–4), p. 267–282.
5. ^ Waldauer, C., Zahka, W.J. and Pal, S. 1996. Kauṭilya's Arthashastra: A neglected precursor to classical economics. Indian Economic Review, Vol. XXXI, No. 1, pp. 101–108.
6. Tisdell, C. 2003. A Western perspective of Kauṭilya's Arthasastra: does it provide a basis for economic science? Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Paper No. 18. Brisbane: School of Economics, The University of Queensland.
7. Sihag, B.S. 2007. Kauṭilya on institutions, governance, knowledge, ethics and prosperity. Humanomics 23 (1): 5–28.
8. ^ Namita Sanjay Sugandhi (2008). Between the Patterns of History: Rethinking Mauryan Imperial Interaction in the Southern Deccan. ProQuest. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0-549-74441-2. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
9. ^ The Indian Encyclopaedia by Subodh Kapoor (2002). Cosmo Publications. Page 1372. ISBN 978-81-7755-257-7. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
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12. Trautmann, Thomas R. (1971). Kautilya and the Arthaśhāstra: A Statistical Investigation of the Authorship and Evolution of the Text. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 10.
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17. Padhy, K. S. (2011), Indian Political Thought, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., p. 33, ISBN 978-81-203-4305-4
18. 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.
19. Trautmann 1971:10 "while in his character as author of an Arthaśhāstra he is generally referred to by his gotra name, Kautilya."
20. 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 Panchatantra explicitly identifies Chanakya with Vishnugupta."
21. 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.'
22. Chanakya-Niti
23. Wilhelm Geiger (1908). The Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa and their historical development in Ceylon. H. C. Cottle, Government Printer, Ceylon. p. 40.
24. Bibliotheca Indica, Volume 96, Issue 5. Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India). Baptist Mission Press, 1891.
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29. Paul Halsall. Indian History Sourcebook: Kautilya: from the Arthashastra c. 250 BCE Retrieved 19 June 2012
30. ^ "India needs to develop its own doctrine for strategic autonomy: NSA". Economic Times. NEW DELHI. PTI. 18 October 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
31. "Chandragupta Maurya". www.tvbasti.com, Retrieved 11 January 2012
32. Chanakya Chandragupta, 1977 Telugu film at IMDb.
33. Ratan Lal Basu & Rajkumar Sen: Ancient Indian Economic Thought, Relevance for Today, ISBN 81-316-0125-0, Rawat Publications, New Delhi, 2008
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36. The Courtesan and the Sadhu, A Novel about Maya, Dharma, and God, October 2008, Dharma Vision LLC.,ISBN 978-0-9818237-0-6, Library of Congress Control Number: 2008934274
37. bharatiya-samskrutige chanakyana kodugegalu

External links

• Chanakya Nitishastra at hinduism.co.za
• Chanakya (Kautilya): Arthashastra, Chanakya Niti, Chanakya Sutras: Full text Sanskrit, and translations
• Chanakya Neeti in English (alternative link)

Template:Persondata

• Use dmy dates from March 2013
• Ancient history of Pakistan
• Vaishnavism
• Hindu philosophers
• Military theorists
• Ancient Indian military writers
• Preclassical economists
• Indian philosophers
• Maurya Empire
• 370 BC births
• 283 BC deaths