Chanakya (Kautilya)

Chanakya was a teacher with wild hair, sharp eyes and a mind that never stopped thinking. He taught at the great university of Takshashila in the north-west, where students came from far away to learn.

One day he saw a little cowherd boy playing 'king' with his friends and telling them exactly what to do. Chanakya smiled — this boy, Chandragupta, had the heart of a ruler.

He took the boy under his wing, and together they planned how to build a strong, fair kingdom. Chanakya wrote a famous book called the Arthashastra, full of ideas about how kings should rule, how coins should be made, and even how to keep everyone safe.

Chanakya, also called Kautilya or Vishnugupta, lived around 375 to 283 BCE. He was a scholar at Takshashila, one of the world's oldest universities, and knew everything from Sanskrit grammar to economics to warfare.

Angry at the greedy Nanda rulers, he searched for someone honest and brave who could replace them. He found the young Chandragupta Maurya and became his teacher, chief advisor and friend.

Chanakya's great book, the Arthashastra, is a handbook for running a country. It talks about taxes, farming, trade, spies, weights and measures, and how a king should behave.

Written more than 2,300 years ago, it still surprises people today with how modern its ideas sound. Chanakya is remembered as a 'kingmaker' — the wise mind behind India's first great empire.