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a moralist. Probably that is why not a single one of
the 2438 aphorisms and maxims in the various collec-
tions attributed to Cāṇakya can be found in the whole
of the Mudrārākṣasa.¹
INTRODUCTION
4. From most ancient times Cāṇakya-Viṣṇugupta
-Kautilya has been credited with the composition of
a work on Arthaśāstra. We also find Kautilya's name
as a writer on polity in Jain and Buddhist tradition.2
Kamandaki in his Nītisāra made a reverential mention
of Canakya whom he called by his own name-Viṣṇu-
gupta. He said: Salutation to the highly intelligent.
Vişnugupta who sprang from an extensive and
illustrious dynasty, the descendants of which lived
like rşi-s accepting alms from nobody; to him whose
renown became world-wide; to him who was effulgent
like the highly blazing fire; to that most artful and
cunning one, the foremost of those conversant with
Paramartha, who mastered the four Veda-s, as if they
were only one-salutations to that one whose fire of
energy was like the flash of lightning, and through
whose magical powers that resembled in potency and
in fury the thunderbolt, the renowned, powerful and
mountain-like dynasty of Nanda was eradicated for
good. Salutations to him who resembled the god
Saktidhara himself in prowess and who, single-handed,
1 Probably with the exception of one beginning with the
words patim tyaktvā (6.6). In two of the CnT MSS., there is a
stanza beginning with the same words (CnT II 23.10 and
CnT III 57.4). Cf. CKr, pp. 104-5.
2 N. C. Banerjee, op. cit., p. 4.
a moralist. Probably that is why not a single one of
the 2438 aphorisms and maxims in the various collec-
tions attributed to Cāṇakya can be found in the whole
of the Mudrārākṣasa.¹
INTRODUCTION
4. From most ancient times Cāṇakya-Viṣṇugupta
-Kautilya has been credited with the composition of
a work on Arthaśāstra. We also find Kautilya's name
as a writer on polity in Jain and Buddhist tradition.2
Kamandaki in his Nītisāra made a reverential mention
of Canakya whom he called by his own name-Viṣṇu-
gupta. He said: Salutation to the highly intelligent.
Vişnugupta who sprang from an extensive and
illustrious dynasty, the descendants of which lived
like rşi-s accepting alms from nobody; to him whose
renown became world-wide; to him who was effulgent
like the highly blazing fire; to that most artful and
cunning one, the foremost of those conversant with
Paramartha, who mastered the four Veda-s, as if they
were only one-salutations to that one whose fire of
energy was like the flash of lightning, and through
whose magical powers that resembled in potency and
in fury the thunderbolt, the renowned, powerful and
mountain-like dynasty of Nanda was eradicated for
good. Salutations to him who resembled the god
Saktidhara himself in prowess and who, single-handed,
1 Probably with the exception of one beginning with the
words patim tyaktvā (6.6). In two of the CnT MSS., there is a
stanza beginning with the same words (CnT II 23.10 and
CnT III 57.4). Cf. CKr, pp. 104-5.
2 N. C. Banerjee, op. cit., p. 4.