चाणक्यराजनीतिः /30

Dau
 

 
A. INTRODUCTION
 

 
CĀŅAKYA-VIṣŅUGUPTA—KAUŢILYA
 

 
1. Vätsyāyane mallanāgaḥ kauṭilyaś caṇakātmajaḥ
 

 
drāmilaḥ pakṣilasvāmī vişnugupto 'ngulaś ca saḥ.¹
 

 
These are the names under which one of the

greatest celebrities of India was known-Cāṇakya, the

Brāhmaṇa from Takṣaśilā, the minister of king Candra-

gupta Maurya and the master of polity. He was

Vātsyāyana-the author of Kamasutra,2 Mallanāga-

the driver, the leader in battle, Kautilya-the poli-

tician,³ Cāṇakya—the moralist, Drāvila, Pakṣila—the

logician, Viṣṇugupta-the astronomer, and Angula-the

mathematician.5
 

 
1 Hemacandra in his Abhidhānacintāmaṇi, ed. by O. Böhtlingk

and Ch. Rieu, St. Petersburg, 1847, vv. 853-4.
 

 
2 See R. Shama Sastry, 'A Note on the Supposed Identity

of Vātsyāyana and Kautilya', The Quarterly Journal of the Mythic

Society, 7, pp. 210-6; H. C. Chakladar, Social Life in Ancient India,

1954, p. 24.
 

 
3 Or Kauṭalya from the name of the gotra.
 

 
4 The text has however drāmila, an inhabitant of Southern

India.
 

 
5 Trikāṇḍaśeṣa, ed. by Narayana Sinha, Benares, 1844, p. 33,

vv. 82-3 reads: vişnuguptas tu kauṇḍinyaḥ (for Kauṭilya [Sārārtha-

candrikā comm.]) . . . amśulaḥ (for angulaḥ [Sārārthacandrikā comm.]).