The Mauryan Polity c12.53

c12.53

Kauṭalya is known not by one or two names, but by a number of names. These are Vātsyāyana, Mallanāga, Kauṭalya, Cāṇakya, Dramila, Pakṣila, Svāmi, Viṣṇugupta, Aṅgula.¹ The *Vaijayantī* of Yādavaprakāśa (cir 1100 A.D.), a contemporary of Hemacandra, mentions Vārāṇaka and omits Cāṇakya.² The name Cāṇakya is unmistakably a patronymic, for, Hemacandra distinctly says: चणकात्मजः or son of Caṇaka. This falsifies the story contained in Viśākhadatta’s *Mudrārākṣasa*, namely, that the Nanda king imprisoned Kauṭalya who consequently had to take gram (*caṇaka*) for his food, and hence the name Cāṇakya.