Chanakya

By B.K. Chaturvedi

Chanakya was the first thinker among the ancients who not only authored a concept but also got it implemented by his supreme efforts. ‘He gave to the geographical entity-Aryavarta—a political or rather a national shape. This book characterizes him as the original author of the concept of ‘India—a nation’. His thinking marks a distinct change from the views of earlier thinkers. It was he who for first time exhorted the people to unite in the name of the country and not faith. One of the greatest figures of wisdom and knowledge in the Indian history is Chanakya. Chanakya is regarded as a great thinker and diplomat in India who is traditionally identified as Kautilya or Vishnu Gupta. 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. Instead of acquiring the seat of kingdom for himself, he crowned Chandragupta Maurya as the emperor and served as his chief advisor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9789350830109

Book preview

I. THE GATHERING STORM

The sky on the eastern horizon was darkening in the haze of the dying sun. The people were getting ready to light lamps and perform their evening worship. Two elderly gents were returning from their evening stroll. Although they were clad almost in an identical fashion, one of them appeared royal by appearance, while the other was attired in the simplest of clothes with sandal wood trident mark upon his forehead. The man in royal garments was the Prime Minister of the Magadh kingdom. His name was Shaktar. His companion was Chanak, a bosom friend of Shaktar. Both received education from the same sage and hence they were also Guru- Bhai. Chanak ran his private teaching institution on the grants received from the Magadh State.

Chanak : Now I take leave of you, Shaktar, as it is time I commenced my evening prayers. But give a thought to whatever I told you. Public discontent can bring ruin even to the greatest of empires. Tell your king to mend his ways.

Shaktar : You talk as if Maharaj Nanda is not your king! He is your king as well; he is the king of Magadh and our exalted ruler.

Chanak : All are exalted in their own positions! If the sun illumines the whole of the earth, the earthern lamp light up our homes. Both are essential for us and equally indispensable. And to tell you frankly, a king is a king only till he behaves like a king. Getting young girls abducted from their homes for satiating his lecherous desire, withholding payment for the supplies made on one pretext or the other, creating willful suspicion among the members of his royal cabinet only to prevent them from taking a united stand against his tyrannical and immoral rule hardly make your king a deserving ruler. He must stop all these nefarious activities or the people will force him to vacate his throne.

Shaktar: Hold your tongue, dear fellow! You get carried away by your emotions without realizing where you are airing these views. You can be held for treason.

Chanak : Truth doesn’t need a veil of propriety. And what I am saying is just the plain truth. You can get me arrested but you can’t hide the facts. And I am not saying all these things in a fit of emotion or anger. For almost one full year I have been receiving such complaints from a variety of quarters. I’m surprised that despite being the prime minister of this large kingdom, your intelligence set up is rather poor. You’re pretending as if you are hearing all these charges for the first time.

Shaktar: It’s not that I am not aware of all these things. I’m already trying my best to dissuade our Maharaj, but of late he is relying more on my junior Aamatya Rakshas. Sometimes I do feel I’m getting redundant in the whole set up. His Excellency has no time even for his Chief Adviser — that is me — and my attempt to acquire greater authority is taken as a sign of my selfish interest. I swear by God that I don’t desire power, authority or riches for my personal gain, but I can’t let my Magadh disintegrate. Whether it’s good or bad, ruled by a saint or a rogue, it is very much my own land, my own flesh and blood.

Chanak : Since when has our dear land come to be indentified with your tyrant lord ?

Shaktar: Till he is on the throne he has to be identified with our Magadh.

Chanak : Then remove him !

Shaktar : This is treason, Chanak ! He is not a puppet to be removed so casually. But I don’t think his few excesses warrant his instant removal. He is our king. We can advise him; we can warn him, but removal straight away! No… I don’t subscribe to your theory. He is youthful and some what headstrong. Had your son be in his position, I’m sure you would have first taken all possible measures to curb his disturbing youthful extravagance before taking any drastic action. I agree that he needs to be advised, but I can’t straight away think of removing him. Tonight itself I’m going to bring the facts before him in our routine weekly meeting. I know the simmering discontent of the people. I’d try my best to make him see reason… Now I’m also getting late and I must go… And I forgot to ask: how is Vishnu now? Suvas was telling me that the was shivering like a dry leaf yesterday owing to high fever.

Chanak : He is better now. He suffers because of his stubbornness. Where was the sense in his having a dip in the Ganga before even the sun rise when he was already feverish. But he says that he has taken a vow of taking the dip every morning in the Ganga as long as he was in Pataliputra. And if he doesn’t bathe, he doesn’t eat. Naturally all these silly and stubborn vows make him sick.

Shaktar : Pray, why not ?… After all he is your son. And saying so, Shaktar laughed loudly. Even Chanak couldn’t help smiling at his friend’s oblique remark.

Shaktar then went away in his waiting chariot and Chanak began to move homewards. Every evening he used to go for an evening stroll and his friend Shaktar invariably joined him on the banks of the Ganga. Walking there for an hour or so had become their joint routine. He and Shaktar, both hailed from Kusumpur, a small town, not very far from Pataliputra. It was Shaktar, who, after assuming political power in the court of the Nanda dynasty, asked Chanak to come to the capital from his home town. Shaktar knew Chanak’s qualities: an honest, truth-loving person, undaunted by any odd and unaffected by greed. He was a staunch man who loved his principles more than anything in life. While moving towards his residence Shaktar knew that Chanak was speaking the truth about Nanda, the ruler, who was growing arrogant and tyrannical. Drinking and carousing, whiling away his time amidst good time girls was what this king had been doing all the time. Of late Shaktar found him to be rarely sober. Nanda found little time for running the State. Initially he had some respect for Shaktar, who had been a senior minister during his father’s rule too. But since the arrival of Rakshas, a young and scheming courtier, Shaktar had almost lost his clout. And ironically, it was on Shaktar’s recommendation that Rakshas was appointed to the official post. Rakshas was a distant relation of Shaktar’s wife. Right from the time of his joining Magadh State, Rakshas had begun to stoke the lecherous fire of his ruler by catering to Nanda’s whims, desires and idiosyncrasies. And soon Shaktar found his ruler to be leaning heavily on Rakshas and disregarding his advice.

Initially Shaktar found Rakshas to be an able and intelligent official and began to nurse a desire to consider him as his daughter Suvashini’s future husband. But when he saw his potential son-in- law’s real nature, he changed his mind. Rakshas turned out to be a scheming, unscruplous person who stopped at nothing to achieve his personal ends. To Rakshas, the decline of Magadh meant little in comparison to his becoming the most important courtier in the king’s eyes. But Shaktar was bred and brought up in the world of old values and he could not tolerate this decline. But he could not revolt against the king either. He earnestly wanted the king to function according to dharma but he could ill afford the thought of removing the king as Chanak wanted. Despite their bosom friendship, both the friends found each of them getting slightly estranged everyday. But such a state of affair was not to last for long.

When Chanak reached home he found Vishnu studying by the earthern light. Vishnu, come here, Chanak commanded and out emerged from a dimly lit tiny cell, a thin, dark complexioned boy, barely over twelve. Although he was thin and bony, yet his body looked strong. Despite his two protruding teeth, his face held a queer attraction whose centre lay in his eyes; large, and steady in gaze and quite piercing. Although he was just on the threshold of adolescence his face somehow had a very mature look, his head was shaven but the thick, long, crown hair (the ‘choti’) was firmly knotted at the end. Seeing Vishnu come, Chanak asked : How are you now? Any fever ?

No, sire! I am well now.

But why must you exert so much. You’re still weak. You may resume your studies later. I think it would be better if you relax for a couple of days. The cold is still intense.

I feel strong enough to resume my studies ! When I am absolutely all right, why should I relax, sire?

Well, I am sick of your argumentative nature. If you think yourself as grown enough to look after yourself without even listening to my advice, you may do whatever you feel like. Now please send your mother here as I have some important matters to discuss with her.

Mother’s not home ! Suvas took her to the palace. They are expected any moment.

What were you studying, changing the topic, Chanak asked. I was preparing some notes for Suvas. She is quite weak in grammar.

Okay, you may go now. Chanak said and began to prepare for his evening worship.

"I think Vishnu has a soft comer for that girl. Otherwise he is so cold and as a matter of fact he would never do anyone’s work himself. I also like Suvas: soft, kind hearted, but volatile in temperament. Just the opposite of what Vishnu is. I think, one of these days I must initiate the proposal before Shaktar.’ Thinking along these lines, he commenced his evening worship, When he was through, he heard the tinkle of an approaching vehicle. The bells around the bulls’ neck were jingling loudly.

As he reached the main living room, he saw his wife putting away herornaments, etc. You can’t blame me for going at this unusual time. I didn’t want to but Suvas wouldn’t listen. She insisted on my seeing her latest doll, as she wanted me to stitch a dress for it… (After a pause), But I found the atmosphere in Suvas’s house quite tense.

It seems that Mahamatya (Shaktar, the prime minister) had a meeting with the king. That must have been be the reason."

… I found three or four old persons weeping in the presence of the Mahamatya while I was leaving. The cartman said that two of them found their young wives missing from their houses, while the other two had some other complaints.

Humm, Chanak responded and added : I apprehend great trouble in the offing. I am seriously thinking of shifting to Kusumpur for a couple of months. You must be ready for that.

But what about your students in the institution? What would they do when you are not here? She was unwilling to shift to a small town which offered much less facilities that what she enjoyed in the capital. But she was clever enough to present her objections in the guise of caring for her husband’s students.

There are not many students nowadays. But I won’t leave them in the lurch. I had just told you well in advance so that you may make the preparations. The way things are going in Pataliputra, I suspect trouble is not far off.

I know what trouble you are hinting at, butted in Vishnu who had also come there. Sir, unless our king mends his ways, Pataliputra is going to explode! People are getting restless.

Chanak was surprised to find his son almost airing his own apprehensions. How can you say so, Vishnu ?

Today when I went to the Ganga in the morning I found a huge crowd collected on the bank. Two half -naked bodies of young girls were found floating in the Ganga. Some of the women’s garments were also found tucked away at the bushes nearby. All those present there were saying that our king is responsible for these deaths.

Let’s see what happens! I have great faith in the persuasive powers of my friend the Mahamatya. He is meeting the king tonight, said Chanak, and then accosted his wife. If dinner is ready, you may serve it.

Just a shortwhile before midnight, as Chanak was sleeping on his bed under heaps of blankets to fight the intense cold, he woke up to the sounds of an approaching horse. Who could that be at this odd hour? Then covering his body with a woollen shawl, Chanak came out to find a messenger from Mahamatya’s house with a bulletin.

Receiving the bulletin, Chanak asked : Is Mahamatya still awake? I was asked to deliver this bulletin to you in person by the wife of the Mahamatya, as he was not there.

And reading the bulletin, Chanak understood the reason. Mahamatya had been arrested and imprisoned by a royal order!

II. A PERILOUS JOURNEY

Even Shaktar himself had not apprehended such fast moves by his enemies. When he was awakened from his deep slumber by his wife to tell him that an urgent royal message awaited him, he couldn’t have imagined that the message would be a warrant for his own arrest. He, now laying in a tiny, dark cell, remembered distinctly that even in the ‘mantri parishad’ (cabinet) he did not say anything offensive to the king. When all members of the cabinet have taken their positions on the royal cushions, two of his junior colleagues had indirectly hinted at the growing discontent among the people owing to the whims of administrators. Without pointing to anyone in particular he had stressed the need for clean living at the top, for people followed their leaders. Before thinking about our position or our status, we must think of our dear motherland first. See what examples Magadh leaves for the world to follow ! At the conclusion of his speech the entire hall resounded with the clapping of those assembled there. But then Shaktar also saw that the king was not at his throne, nor his own assistant Rakshas. When he was about to get back to his office Rakshas just returned to bid him an affectionate farewell. Little did Shaktar realise that tis extra dose of affection was meant to hoodwink him about the imminent royal order. But Shaktar knew that he would not be in the jail for long for was sure that his friend Chanak won’t just keep quiet.

The move was so drastic and unexpected that for a couple of hours even Chanak was undecided about his own future course of action. ‘Suppose I come out to the street and start voicing my grievances against this tyrannical and immoral rule, won’t I be arrested immediately? Maybe, I may not be allowed to come out to the street. Nanda must have already posted his guards before my house to arrest me, at sight. And a person who could arrest the mighty Mahamatya wouldn’t think twice to throw me in the jail. And with me and Shaktar both gone, people in the absence of a leader would be disunited. Moreover, the unscrupulous Nanda would stoop to the meanest level to keep people disunited with baits of wine, women and wealth! ‘ With these thoughts weighing heavily upon his mind, Chanak climbed on to the roof of his house and peeped down and sideways. ‘No… there is no guard, it means they don’t expect me to start the rebellion right now. Maybe they’d send the guards in the morning. Why shouldn’t I upset their expectation by starting the crusade right now. ‘ Chanak was now certain that his freedom would last only till the day break. And he also knew that Nanda would leave nothing to chance in having him arrested. So he did’nt have much time left. His display of discontent and protest couldn’t be postponed any longer. Moreover, the person who had all through been advising him restraint had himself been arrested quite casually. Now it was Chanak’s turn to show what he could do to arouse public opinion and bring about the arrogant, debauch ruler’s fall. ‘Magadh’s welfare lies in the removal of this vile king who has made the entire country a big brothel, where the honour of no woman is safe and where principles are pawned for petty benefit! I must attempt to stage a rebellion at this very moment.’

With this resolve, he summoned his cart driver and asked him to prepare the cart to take away his son, Vishnu and wife to Kusumpur. Then he summoned his wife and broke the news. He also asked his stupefied wife to leave immediately for Kusumpur with his son. But his wife protested: But how can I leave so soon. And why don’t you accompany us, too?

"No, I