Chanakya or Kautilya

Chanakya or Kautilya :Chanakya was Chandragupta’s minister and wrote a book “Arthashastra” in Sanskrit which tells us about the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. Chanakya was also known as Vishnu Gupta. Kautilya has fully discussed the duties and responsibilities of an ideal King. He says: “Whatever pleases himself, he (king) shall not consider as good but whatever pleases his subjects he shall consider as good”. Arthashastra is regarded to be the greatest treatise in politics. Some writers compare Arthashastra with Machiavelli’s Prince, because Kautilya like Machiavelli tried to separate ethics from politics. He is also called “Aristotle of the East”.