Saturday, January 23, 2016

Essay On Chanakya

Chanakya is one of the superlative figures of wisdom and knowledge in the Indian history. He is reckoned to have lived from 350 - 283 B.C. Chanakya is touted as the "Pioneer Economist of India". Chanakya was the adviser and Prime Minister of Emperor Chandragupta. Chanakya was a professor at the University of Taxshila located in present day Pakistan and was an expert in commerce, warfare, political economy, etc. His celebrated works include Chanakya Niti, Arthashastra and Nitishastra. Read this biography of Kautilya that covers his interesting life story.

Chanakya, is also distinguished by the names of Kautilya and Vishnugupta as is mentioned in his text. His celebrated work called Arthashastra is a classic example of statecraft and politics and is read in Europe even today. It essentially consists of the principles of politics and how the state works. An able ruler has to be a ruthless leader to get sure that the state works smoothly and efficiently. The legends associated with Chanakya are very interesting and provide a testimony of his greatness.

When Chanakya was born, he owned a full set of teeth, which is a sign that he would become a king or an emperor. But since he was birthed in a Brahmin family, it was considered inappropriate. Therefore, his teeth were broken and it was predicted that he would make another person a king and rule through him.

Even as a child, Chanakya had the qualities of a born leader. His grade of knowledge was beyond the children of his age. Chanakya was thrown out of the court of King Nanda as he was a blunt man and addressed his mind clearly. Chanakya swore he would call for revenge. Chanakya comes across Chandragupta as a young kid. Even at that age, he was a born leader and proved the qualities of an able Emperor. He was the leading force behind Chandragupta and the vital person who made him an able Emperor.

Chanakya adds poison in little amounts daily in Chandragupta's food in parliamentary procedure to make him immune to poison, lest some enemy tries to poison him. However Chandragupta was unaware about this and once presented a little food to his wife who was in the ninth month of pregnancy. She didn't survive, but Chanakya cut open her stomach and took out the baby.
This baby grew up to get an able emperor named Bindusara. He had a minister named Subandhu who did not like Chanakya. He told Bindusara that Chanakya had killed his mother.
Without assessing facts, Bindusara confronted Chanakya. On knowing the whole narration, he felt ashamed of his hasty actions and begged for forgiveness. He asked Subandhu to go and apologize and make Chanakya come back. Subandhu, was very cunning and on the pretense of going to apologize to Chanakya, he killed him. Thus, ended the life of a big person like Chanakya just because of political rivalry.

My books are available on Amazon marketplace Politics Aggregates here
And The Ethics Of Chanakya here

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Paramhans Jiddanand