Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c32.s2.5

c32.s2.5

There is a revival of the tradition of Chandragupta Maurya in Gupta times. Royal parents name their sons after him (thrice). Viśākhadatta compares him with Vishṇu in his play written under one of the Chandraguptas of the Gupta dynasty (I. A. 1913 p. 265). Chandraguptan laws in the Kauṭilya are closely reproduced in the Narada Smriti. Chandragupta's Artha-Śāstra is versified and adapted in the Kamandakiya Nītisāra. There is an ambition, partly realized, of founding a large empire from Paṭaliputra like that of Chandragupta Maurya. Kalidasa, a Gutpa poet, says that the country becomes *Rājanvatī*, 'possessed of a just king', only on account of the Magadhan emperor (Raghuvamśa).²