The Mauryan Polity c12.50

c12.50

It appears that Kauṭalya is the family name of Viṣṇugupta, the family name being derived from the patron saint or ṛṣi Kuṭala by the addition of derivative suffix 'yañ'.² Last but not the least is the invaluable inscriptional evidence supplied to us by D. B. Diskalkar. He writes: "I have found an inscription of V. S. 1291 (Vaiśākha Śudi 14 Guran) from the village Gaṇeṣar near Dholkā in Gujarat which in *l.* 9 clearly reads Kauṭalya. It records that Vastupāla, the famous Jain minister of the Vāghela king Viradhavala, who built a temple of Gaṇeśvara in V. S. 1291, was equal to Kauṭalya in statesmanship."³ This inscription is valuable to us in more than one respect. Not only does it show that the name Kauṭilya is the misspelling of the name Kauṭalya but also it bears witness to the fact that Kauṭalya is acknowledged to be a statesman and not a mere Pandit. It silences two important arguments in regard to the name of the author and the authenticity of the work. But it may be asked why the name Kauṭilya also sticks on in some Indian literature. Only one explanation can be offered and that is due to the ingenuity with which Viśākhadatta invested his character Kauṭalya in his famous play *Mudrārākṣasa*. For the purpose of his play he perhaps drew from his imagination a name which, being a twisting of the original name, answered his purpose well. Dramatic literature always being a popular branch of literature the wrong name might have caught the fancy of the masses and might have eventually become a bye-word for ‘crookedness’ or ‘crooked policy’.