Jain Journal 1974 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 48

On the Religion of Canakya
Jyoti Prasad Jain
Canakya, the reputed author of the Arthasastra which is the earliest available Indian treatise on political thought and statecraft, was also the chief architect of the first historical Indian empire. He was the guide, chief adviser and prime minister of Candragupta Maurya, and had helped the latter to oust the Nandas of Magadha, instal himself on the throne of Pataliputra and build a vast and powerful empire which extended over almost the whole of the Indian subcontinent and even penetrated beyond its frontiers. It has long been established and admitted by historians generally that the great emperor Candragupta Maurya (circa 325-297 B.C.) who was a contemporary and worthy rival of Alexander the Great of Macedon, was a follower of Jainism. But, the fact that his political guru Canakya alias Kautilya, the great Machiavelli of India, was also a Jaina by religion has not yet been given due recognition by modern historians. It is not because there is any lack or paucity of good evidence on this point, nor because attention of the scholarly world has not been drawn towards it, as has been claimed in an article published recently in a number of Jaina periodicals and magazines.
As a matter of fact, during the past forty years or so several scholars have published their papers establishing the fact that the personal faith of Canakya, like that of his royal master, was Jainism. To name the more important of such writings, Muni Nyaya Vijaya's article 'Canakya and his Dharma' (published in Anekānt, Vol. II No. 1, Nov. 1938, pp. 105-115), Prof. C. D. Chatterjee's learned paper 'Early Life of Candragupta Maurya' (published in the B.C. Law Volume), the