A Fantasy Called Chanakya

There is absolutely no historical evidence that a man called Chanakya ever lived during Mauryan times (300 BC) or that he guided Chandragupta Maurya to kingship. What we have is a story based on later Buddhist and Jain chronicles and Sanskrit plays like Mudra-rakshasa, all imagined after 500 AD, i.e, 700 years later.

- Devdutt Pattanaik

Buddhists proclaimed Chandragupta’s grandson, Ashoka, as champion of Buddhism. Jains told stories of how Chandragupta embraced Jainism and even fasted to death in Karnataka. Not wanting to be left behind, Brahmins argued that Chandragupta owed his success to a Brahmin minister—Chanakya, who was even identified with Kautilya, the author of Arthashastra. Today this is viewed as fact. But the Arthashastra refers to Chinese silk and Roman gold coins, both of which came to India around 200 AD, almost 400 years after Mauryan rule.