Chanakya,also known as Kautilya or Vishnugupta was an Indian teacher, economist,writer and philosopher.He was the royal advisor in the court of Emperor Chandra Gupta Maurya and later served his son Bindusara at the same post.He played a major role in destroying the Nanda Dynasty and establishment of the Maurya Dynasty.
He was the Guru (teacher) of Chandra Gupta Maurya and he started training him how to take over the Nandas and become a great ruler at a very tender age.He was considered utterly intelligent and was very well versed in all the three vedas.He had his specialized strengths in the feilds of classic economics and political science.All the works of Acharya Chanakya was lost by the end of the Gupta Dynasty and were only found at the begining of the 20th century.Hence it is said that there are basically four legendary accounts of Chanakya.
Birth
According to the Jain version which is the oldest one Chanakya was born to a lay couple,Chanin and Chaneshvari,at Chanaka village in Golla.The identity of Golla is not certain in current maps, however it is believed it was somewhere in south India.
Chankya was born with a full set of teeth and had an ugly appearance . When the learned monks of the age saw the infant they pridicted that the child would grow up to be a great his royalty.However Chanakya’s mother felt insecured and feared that her son would ditch her after acquiring all the riches.Thus,his father Chanin,wanted to pacify the predictions and wanted to defy his wife’s belief,which is why he broke the child’s canine teeth and added to his ugly appearance.
The Revolutionary Oath
Chanakya grew up to be a great scholar with immense knowledge about the vedas and the 'Dharm – granthas’ and was married to a Brahmin woman who was very learned and beautiful.However his in-laws were not happy with his poor state apart from his appearance which offered a contrast to that of their daughter.Chanakya thus went to Patliputra to gather some ‘bhiksa’( holy offering to the brahmins during early age ) , where lived a very generous king,Dhanananda,about whom he had heard a lot.
However,the story took a drastic turn and the king came out to be very shrewd and cunning.He aked his men to throw Chanakya out of his palace and called him an ugly looking beggar.Chanakya felt humiliated and insulted . In his anger he broke his holy thread and untied his hair.He pledged not to tie his hair until he distroyed the king’s empire.He took an oath to put an end to the Nanda Dynasty.
The aim of United India
( Akhand Bharat )
Chanakya’s oath led to a revolution phase in the history of India . Chanakya found a young boy Chandu and trained him to be a legendary worrier and emperor.To him,the boy was the ultimate weapon to destroy the Nanda Dynasty and the accomplishment of a superior goal , that was the the aim of Akhand Bharat.Chanakya realised the threat to India from foreign troops due to which he wanted to unite India against foreign invasion.
The boy later acquired the throne of Magadh after defeating Dhanananda and became the first ruler of the Maurya Dynasty where Chanakya became his royal advisor.
Chanakya’s Death
The story behind Chanakya’s death is uncertain.In one version of the Jain account,it is said that he accompanied Chandra Gupta Maurya to the forests as an ascetic.Where as in another account,it is mentioned that the reason behind Chanakya’s death was Subandhu.He was a minister in Bindusara’s court who had hard feelings against Chanakya.When Chanakya finally decided to starve himself to death as he considered himself old enough to put an end to his life,Bindusara asked Subandhu to convince Chanakya not to do so.Subandhu burnt Chanakya alive instead.
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