Little known facts of Badass Chanakya

A thorn had pricked his foot once. After that instead of uprooting the tree, he poured buttermilk on the tree so that the ants will gather around tree and finish the tree to its last pieces. An unhappy royal minister saw this and introduced Chanakya to the Nanda king, knowing that Chanakya would not be treated well in the court. Insulted at the court, Chanakya untied the sikha (lock of hair) and swore that he would not tie it back till he destroyed the Nanda kingdom.

Chanakya met Chandragupta Maurya, a young man who too had deep personal grudges against the Nandas. Together they set about provoking the people of Magadha against Dhanananda and, as there happened to be many amongst the populace that Dhanananda had offended in some way, it was not long before they had managed to amass a considerable force. The new Mauryan Army was still numerically inferior to that of Dhanananda. Chānakya's initial attempt to overthrow Nanda failed, whereupon he comes across a mother scolding her child for burning himself by eating from the middle of a bun or bowl of porridge rather than the cooler edge. He realized his initial strategic error and, instead of attacking the heart of Nanda territory, slowly chips away at its edges. By 321 B.C. Chandragupta had succeeded the Nandas and the long reign of the Mauryans had begun.

The advent of the Mauryans brought them into conflict next with the Greek General Seleucus I Nicator, who had inherited both Alexander's Asian holdings and his ambitions. These, Chandragupta shattered in 303 B.C. The resulting treaty gave the loser 500 war-elephants and granted to the victorious Chandragupta the Seleucid Provinces of Trans-Indus (Afghanistan), Seleucus's daughter Helen in marriage, and the future court presence of the Seleucid Ambassador Megasthenes.

A rival king Malayaketu sought control of all the former Nanda territories. He was supported by Rakshasaa, the former Nanda minister, several of whose attempts to kill Chandragupta were foiled by Chanakya. As part of their game plan, Chanakya and Chandragupta faked a rift between themselves. As a sham, Chandragupta removed Chanakya from his ministerial post, while declaring that Rakshasa is better than him. Chanakya's agents in Malayaketu's court then turned the king against Rakshasa by suggesting that Rakshasa was poised to replace Chanakya in Chandragupta's court. The activities by Chanakya's spies further widened the rift between Malayaketu and Rakshasa. His agents also fooled Malayaketu into believing that five of his allies were planning to join Chandragupta, prompting Malayaketu to order their killings. In the end, Rakshasa ends up joining Chandragupta's side, and Malayaketu's coaliation is completely undone by Chanakya's strategy.

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 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.

Greatest Badass you didn't know- Chanakya

 The man in the above picture, whose name has become a synonym for strategy and political wile in India, Kautilya, Vishnugupta, but more commonly known to most as Chanakya.  There is not much agreement on where he was born, some versions state it as Taxila and some state it was somewhere in the South. Educated at  Takshasila, he would later be an acharya there.

While there have been many texts about him, the most popular one has been Mudrarakshasa, the Sanskrit play by Vishakadatta. His major achievement has been the overthrow of the Nanda dynasty and creating the Mauryan empire. As per the play, he was insulted by the Nanda ruler, Dhana Nanda, and that made him swear, he would not tie his shikha( the tuft of hair worn by Brahmins) until the Nandas were overthrown.  And  in his quest for revenge, he found Chandragupta, whom he felt was the right man to replace Dhana Nanda. While some versions that Chandragupta was the son of the chief of Moriya clan, which also led to the name Chandragupta Maurya, another  states he was the son of a royal concubine Mura.

It was also a critical time in the country's history, with Alexander the Great waging an expedition to India, after having overrun Persia. Chanakya felt that the Nandas having become pleasure loving and weak, could not be relied upon to protect the country. Forming an alliance with Parvata( identified as King Porus), Chandragupta easily defeated Nanda, overthrow him, and became the King. However  the actual problems started from now on. Rakshas, the capable minister of  the Nandas was now swearing revenge over his master's death, and Parvata had passed away, with his son Malayaketu taking over the throne.

Malayaketu now wanted to take control over all the former Nanda territories that were now under Chandragupta, he was aided in this by Rakshas, who saw it as the best chance to take revenge. Chanakya faked a rift between him and Chandragupta,  and then in a double move made his agents feed false information to Malayaketu, that Rakshas  was now going to Chanakya's court. That achieved the desired effect, with the rift widening between Malayaketu and Rakshas. Chanakya's agents also spread information that the 5 allies who were part of Malayaketu's coalition were planning to oust him. Malayaketu ordered their killings, Rakshas moves over to Chandragupta's side, and in the end his grand plans come to naught. In one move, Chanakya not only ensured Rakshas services would be used for the Mauryas, but he completely neutralized Malayaketu too.

When the iniitial attempts to capture overthrow the Nandas were unsuccesful, Chanakya then changed strategy. Instead of  attacking directly at the center, which was Magadha, he attacked from the periphery capturing those areas,and then moved into the center.  He also used Rakshasa's mistress Suvasini to create a rift between Nanda and Rakshas, knowing very well, that  without the latter's advice, Nanda was ineffective.

Chanakya's greatest legacy to India, has been the Arthashastra, a treatise on economy, statecraft, military strategy, that continues to be relevant even now. The qualities of an ideal king, leadership are well defined. More important though is the way Chanakya lays out the principles of statecraft, be it in resolving disputes, espionage, and how to deal with neighbors.

Alexander the Great had to meet his Waterloo in India, retreating from there,and it was thanks to Chanakya's strategies, where he cleverly built  a series of alliances, that  effectively repelled the Greeks. And add to it, being responsible for creating one of the first great empires in India, the Mauryas, Chanakya to me is one of the most influential political strategist.


Credits: google images,Wiki, Ratnakar Sadasyula