Kautilya (Chanakya)
4th century BC (traditional) · Ancient Indian adviser traditionally named as the author of the Arthashastra, a treatise on statecraft.
Kautilya, also called Chanakya and Vishnugupta, is remembered in Indian tradition as a Brahmin scholar who helped Chandragupta Maurya overthrow the Nanda dynasty and found the Maurya Empire in the fourth century BC. There is no documented historical information about his life; the stories about him come from later legendary accounts, preserved in Buddhist, Jain and Sanskrit sources written centuries afterward, including the Sanskrit play Mudrarakshasa. In all of these versions, Chanakya is insulted by the Nanda king, vows to destroy him, and places Chandragupta on the throne; according to the legends, he then served as chief adviser to Chandragupta and to his son Bindusara. Tradition identifies him as the author of the Arthashastra, a long Sanskrit treatise on government, economics, law, diplomacy and war, which advises a king on how to gain and keep power and how to keep his people prosperous. Modern scholars think the Arthashastra was probably composed by several authors in the early centuries AD, and that its link to Chanakya was added later to give it prestige.
Kautilya (Chanakya) is also an author in the library: author page and works.
Faith: Faith not well documented; accounts of his life are mostly legendary. Source: Wikipedia
Key dates
- 4th century BC Traditional lifetime, as adviser to Chandragupta Maurya
- Early centuries AD Arthashastra probably composed in its present form
- 1905 Arthashastra manuscript rediscovered
Read about them
Grades 9–12
- The Arthashastra · In the library
More lives
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Notes: Kautilya/Chanakya is known only from legendary accounts; the birth and death years given by Wikidata (c. 375–283 BC) are traditional, and modern scholarship doubts that he wrote the Arthashastra as we have it.