Chanakya – The Kingmaker

The world renowned popularity of the stupendous work of Artha Shastra, literally meaning Economics in Sanskrit bears testimony to the unparalleled insight of this legendary character into the art of politics, economics and governance. Very few works have been able to conquer the time to stay afresh over centuries like Chanakya’s Artha Shastra. In fact to this day, this has been the authoritative handbook of reference for several wizards in politics and economics. 
The other remarkable works of Chanakya are Chanakya Niti, and Neetishastra. Chanakya was also known by other names such as Kautilya and Vishnu Gupta. Chanakya was a world known professor at the University of Takshila (situated in present day Pakistan) and was a great scholar in commerce, warfare, economics, etc. He was the architect who built the personality of Chandra Gupta who established the mighty Gupta Empire. Yes, for several reasons, Chanakya is a glowing name in the ancient Indian Political History. Who is this amazing personality? What are the other credentials that have earned him a deathless fame in Indian History? The subject is far more interesting and inspiring than we can imagine. 
At birth, Chanakya had the complete set of teeth. As per Indian belief, this was an indication that he would become an emperor in future. Since Brahmins considered this was not appropriate for a child in their families, they broke the teeth of Chanakya. However, the popular beliefs said he would at least turn to be a kingmaker and rule an empire through him, which actually came true eventually as he grew up.
As a child, Chanakya had enormous leadership qualities. He proved himself as a child with unusually stupendous knowledge. He became the principal counsellor for in the court of king Nanda. Since Chanakya was straight forward and blunt in whatever he spoke, he was labelled impolite and therefore insulted and expelled from the court. Out of humiliation, Chanakya vowed that he would take revenge and bring about the downfall of Nanda. 
Chanakya met Chandragupta as a child playing in the streets. Just at the sight of this boy, Chanakya felt he had all the qualities that could make him an emperor. Therefore, Chanakya sculpted the boy and made him an emperor. Through Chandra Gupta he avenged Nanda and subdued him.
Since there was an impending danger of someone poisoning Chandra Gupta, Chanakya wanted to make him immune to poison and therefore added little amounts of poison every day without his knowledge. Unaware of this fact, one day Chandra Gupta shared some food with his wife who was in the ninth month of pregnancy. This act proved fatal to Chandra Gupta’s wife, but Chanakya cut open her body and rescued the baby.  
Upon growing, this baby would become the next heir to the throne called Bindusara. Subandhu, a minister who was jealous of Chanakya’s reputation in the court played a trick by telling Bindusara that Chanakya killed his mother. When Bindusara grew in anger, he got to know the true story and chided Subandhu for misguiding him. This was rather unbearable for Subandhu. In the disguise of asking for his pardon, he met Chanakya and killed him. Thus, the life of a great political wizard came to an end on account of political rivalry. However, Chanakya’s contribution to economics and politics stood immortal for ages to this day.