Chanakya The Greatest Patriot , Fight For Unity of Motherland

Chanakya
The Greatest Patriot

CHANAKYA (350 BCE to 275 BCE):

Some individuals will never be forgotten by history which has witnessed such impossible and fantastic men who defy all imagination and logic with their superhuman deeds and vision. Chanakya glares like the sun among all the other infinite stars that inhabit the sky and seem to fade away in its light.

Chanakya is incomparable, invincible, visionary and a messiah of freedom who leaves an indelible impression on the history of India which will continue to inspire and ignite the souls of those who know of his mighty foresight and everlasting reservoir of energy.

CHANAKYA: EVER INSPIRING

Chanakya not just inspires a society and its people who construct it and make it run but even a single individual who can learn from him the art of a never ending stamina in pursuit of justice and humanity or any noble goal in one’s life.  To understand that nothing is impossible within the logical limits and how putting to use what one best knows, a keen reverence for knowledge and working ceaselessly never tiring and ever hopeful into the right direction can let you gain whatever is gracious, enlightening and salvaging.

THE DARK AGES IN INDIA

About 2300 years back, India was suffering and drowning in dark and gloom of weak and exploitative governance, poverty, ignorance, slavery and selfish monarchy. Almost all the kings were frail and the only job they did was to neglect and abuse their own subjects, indulging in all sorts of inhuman sexualities and ruthless brutalities of all kinds. India was broken into small territories with their own kings who kept fighting among themselves. This lack of unity was eating the country up from the inside and at the same time made it vulnerable to the foreign attacks which could easily defeat the country and India would have slipped into the hands of foreign tyrants which would mean an enormous theft of its native natural resources with precious metals and slavery for the innocent ordinary common citizens of India who were already suffering under the burden of tyranny of their own native Indian kings. The condition of poor people (especially farmers) was the worst and slavery was rampant. Among such territories Magadha had one of the worst conditions in regard to the poor and ordinary people with most of the wealth concentrated in very few hands and Magadha’s king Dhananand the richest and one of the greatest tyrants of all the kings in India.

THE UNSTOPPABLE ALEXANDER THE GREAT The son of Philip II of Macedon succeeded the Greek throne after his father’s death. One of the most successful commanders in history, Alexander the Great, needs no introduction. He was in those days considered by his soldiers and innumerable ordinary people as the son of the Greek God Zeus and a warrior of the stature of Achilles (the hero of Greek epic ‘Iliad’ by Homer who was invincible and immortal except his heel). Alexander and his Greek army were an unstoppable power, his keen and calculative military expertise, his leadership qualities and his eloquence of speech with which he could enthuse new spirit and unremitting confidence into his army fused with the loyalty of his equally able companion and Commander Seleucus Nicator together with the things he learned from his teacher -the great Aristotle crowned him as the indomitable king of the Greeks who would prove true, the predictions of the Greek seers made at the time of his ‘supernatural’ birth....that he would become a magnificent king and would conquer all the kingdoms that existed on the face of this world. Alexander was synonymous with total death and destruction ...all kinds of inhumanities and cruelties that extended his empire from Greece to whole of Persia, Syria, most coast of Levant and Iran. In Tyre he crossed all boundaries of brutality and sold its women and children into slavery. As he went on many kingdoms surrendered automatically and crushed those who stood against his authority in revolt. Gaza was one such kingdom in Egypt that revolted and where Alexander repeated what he did in Tyre. When he besieged Jerusalem, he was shown the prophecy in ‘the book of Daniel’ that foretold the coming of a Greek king who would conquer Persia. Delighted at such a divine praise and surrender of its people he spared Jerusalem and moved on. He also founded Alexandria in Egypt and then acquired Assyria, Babylon, Susa with its immense treasury, Persepolis where he looted all the city for several days and then burned all the city to ashes. Alexander established a succession of new cities, all called Alexandria, including modern Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Alexandria Eschate ("The Furthest") in modern Tajikistan. The battle took Alexander through the lands of Media, Parthia, Aria (West Afghanistan), Drangiana, Arachosia (South and Central Afghanistan), Bactria (North and Central Afghanistan), and Scythia. Alexander used to send back all the vast loot gained from his conquest which immortalized the economy of his own state. This reminds one of the acts of the British colonization in India. This act on the other hand weakened the man power of Alexander’s own country too. With his plans to conquer the Indian subcontinent Alexander was met and helped by the first deceiver of his Indian motherland –Ambhik, the king of Gandhar who invited Alexander to conquer Indian territories and signed a treaty with him as he wanted to conquer all India with the help of Alexander. Slaughtering Ashvayanas and Ashvakayanas clans he later destroyed the fort of Massanga, killed the entire population there and annihilated its buildings to dust and all this in just a matter of four days. It was with Porus or King Parvataka that he fought a bloody marvelous battle that Alexander so impressed made him an ally in his conquest of India though Porus didn’t wanted it...it was the only choice he had. Alexander made Porus another of his ‘Satraps’. Taking Porus into confidence helped Alexander to control his territory in India- a land so far from his native country. Wherever Alexander went and conquered, he left his own Greek men or the king of the states who surrendered as his representatives (=Satrapies) of the states he acquired while all the administration and wealth were under Alexander’s indirect control as kings ruled their own kingdoms under Alexander’s order. They were helped by a legion of Greek army that checked the workings of the defeated kings under Alexander, of the states which were annexed by him. Porus was helped by Chanakya to acquire his control back and in turn Porus helped Chanakya to unite India. History has been a witness that Alexander could not consolidate his empire further than the ‘Vyasa’ River. He was stopped by Chanakya’s efforts that curbed such an impossible power that could not be stopped by anyone in this world. HOW CHANAKYA DEFEATED ALEXANDER

When Alexander started from Macedonia on a mission to conquer the world it wasn’t long that Chanakya gathered the required information about what was happening outside India. Moreover being a professor in Taxila he could see a large amount of refugees dropping into Taxila to save their lives from the doings of Alexander. Chanakya was well aware of the richness of Indian resources and more than that the value of Indian philosophy and spirituality which would be crushed under the culture of foreign rule as the Britishers did with India some centuries before. He could see the common men and women being brutalized and chained just for a selfish nonsensical ruthless desire of a foreign king to enslave all earth!! Chanakya was the real son of his motherland and all this terrifyingly disturbed Chanakya every moment of his existence as he contrived to counter attack Alexander and send him back to his country.

Firstly Chanakya persuaded Porus to cunningly work against Alexander while pretending to be his representative. Secondly, he made Chandragupta astutely join the Greek army to succeed in all the plans Chanakya aimed to accomplish. Thirdly, he trained Chandragupta to cause an army dissatisfaction among his Greek soldiers and make the Indian soldiers in Alexander's army realize their Indian heritage and revolt against the inequalities and abuses they met in Alexander’s army. Fourthly, he tried his best to stop the neighboring Indian territories to discontinue giving Alexander and his army the required amount of food and other material help. Fifthly, Chanakya took advantage of their superstitious nature to spread terror that Alexander’s inhumanities have angered the Gods of the Indian land and if he continued his attacks and loots he would suffer greatly. Sixthly, Alexander’s army too wanted to return to their native country as they were very tired now on account of fighting for so long and sad on losing their own friends and kinsmen. Seventhly, He made Chandragupta to lead the Indian armies of those states which had already been conquered and were fighting for Alexander. These armies were now to revolt instead. Eighthly, He gathered a number of foreign armies that were ready to help him in his attack on Alexander. These armies were of those who had suffered on account of Alexander’s inhumanity.

Chanakya waged wars with Alexander at every step of his advent in India but he could not be stopped. At last Chanakya gathered all the support that he could. He added to the force of foreign armies, that wanted to fight in league with Chanakya against Alexander, the armies of those Indian kingdoms defeated by Alexander but who were till now being forced to fight for Alexander. Such armies were lead by Chandragupta in the North-West India as he too was one of the Greek soldiers and was conspiring secretly against Alexander in his very own camps.   Chanakya took from Porus a whole group of those criminals, murderers and looters who were imprisoned in the jails of Punjab i.e. the kingdom of Porus and created an army out of them too.  This battle had a very deep impact on Alexander...the way Indians fought shook Alexander’s confidence in his belief to conquer Magadha which was the centre of India and his next largest mission. Magadha had a far larger army than the one he just conquered though with great difficulty. Chanakya knew that he was going to loose in this battle but that he was just aiming to make Alexander think of going back to his native country making Alexander know that a much greater army of Magadha were awaiting them and would definitely crush them. Alexander was pressurized by his army men to go back to Macedonia as they had lost the fervor to carry on. Moreover, the weather too was very unfavourable. Alexander was brutally wounded and he had to return. There are many theories for the reason of his death but whatever it might be- Typhoid or Malaria or poisoning or anything else one thing is for sure- Chanakya was successful in beating Alexander and sending him back from India where he died till he reached Babylonia.

HOW CHANAKYA DEFEATED MAGADHA 

When Chanakya came to know about Alexander he went to Dhanananda, the king of the most powerful kingdom of India-Magadha, to ask him to unite all India because it was only by unifying India as a whole that Alexander could be defeated. But Dhanananda was cruelty and corruption personified. He on the contrary abused and insulted Chanakya and had him thrown out of his palace where then Chanakya swore the famous angry revenge against him that meant to destroy a king who was exploiting his innocent and poor Indian subjects and sucking their blood and life to their very bones. Women were even worse. The king had innumerable concubines and immeasurable wealth that he collected by robbing the common and imposing absolutely unjustified taxes upon them while no one could muster the courage to stand up against such a monster. Enter Chanakya!! Chanakya’s mission was to unite all of India into a single country where small kingdoms don’t fight among each other...because in such fights it was the poor common man who suffered the most when any king made a loot attack in villages and towns. The unity that could be seen among Indian kingdoms against Alexander could be seen no more on the idea to fight Magadha which stood in the centre of India. So it was upto Chandragupta and Chanakya to gather their strength once again after they had defeated Alexander.

Chanakya employed various strategies mobilizing and collecting common people, training them in martial arts, making guerilla attacks and revolutionary looting of the treasury etc.

Chanakya and Chandragupta had to face defeat at first as Chanakya later realized his mistake in directly attacking the center of Magadha into Patliputra. Once Chanakya saw a mother scolding her child by burning himself from eating his dish from the middle of it where he should have started eating his food from the periphery instead. Thus realizing his mistake Chanakya learnt and did not repeat it. He took control over the territories surrounding Patliputra first. Secondly he made up his mind to station his troops in the areas they conquered which let them gain absolute control of their defeated territories. Before this they just conquered the areas and moved on and then the defeated enemy soldiers used to gather again and encircle Chanakya’s army. Again Chanakya collected support from the kingdom of Porus which was now under the kingship of Porus’ son Malayketu. Later Malayketu turned against Chanakya as he was just a selfish evil king. Chanakya got him killed lot years later.

Patliputra thus surrounded on all sides by Chanakya and Chandragupta could thus now be attacked efficiently and on the other hand Chanakya got Dhanananda murdered secretly. Chandragupta had already become famous and common people of Magadha had great impressions and image of him as it was only Chandragupta who could stand for these poor people against a devil such as Dhanananda whom nobody could even think of challenging.

It was only due to Chanakya’s highly exceptional brain and planning that when Chandragupta entered the city gates of Patliputra that people adored him with flowers and praises. Chanakya got all the religious ceremonies done and then another mission impossible got accomplished- Chandragupta was now the king of Magadha at a young age of just twenty. CHANAKYA HAD AMATYA RAKSHAS JOIN HIM Chanakya then had Dhanananda’s excellently brilliant chief advisor Amatya Rakshas to work as Chandragupta’s advisor. To take Amatya on his side, who was angry on Chanakya for killing Dhanananda discussed his aim of making India a prosperous nation by uniting all its territories and ruling the country with justice and humanity. He praised Amatya politely and showed him his mistake in helping a cruel king like Dhanananda for such a long time under whose reign a common man could never flourish in joy. Amatya was quick to see this and joined Chandragupta as his advisor too. Chanakya took upon himself the task of the Prime minister and uniting all India made it a prosperous nation completely free of corruption. No one ever dared to loot someone, become corrupt, stand in an unjustified revolt against Chandragupta or stealing the taxes. Chanakya did not live in the palaces. He was living outside the city in a humble hut leading a life of a saint and like a Brahmin went begging for food from house to house and even donated that food to a hungry beggar whenever someone came to his hut asking for alms. SELEUCUS NICATOR KICKED BACK TO HIS KINGDOM Once again, Seleucus Nicator, the chief companion of Alexander, returned to complete his master Alexander’s unrealized dream of conquering India but by that time Chandragupta had gotten so strong that Seleucus could hardly save himself and had to agree to a treaty with Chandragupta that involved Seleucus giving all his defeated territories in Asia to Chandragupta. All this was being planned by Chanakya as Chandragupta kept fulfilling his orders. Later Chandragupta heart stricken by a famine that hit his land got spiritually inclined to Jaina beliefs and later left his body by starving himself meditating with a monk, Bhadrabahu, in the caves of Shravanabelgola. Thus, rested the life of a superhero. Chanakya too left his body through yogic transformation during the reign of Chandragupta’s son Bimbasara and so terminating his legendary existence too.  Though many more theories exist on Chanakya’s death.

THE VISION OF CHANAKYA

The three major works of Chanakya include Arthashastra, Nitishastra and Chanakyaneeti. The first one is a marvelous work of Economics, how a state is to be run, war strategies and international relations while the second is a work of wisdom, Indian way of life and political science and the last one of Diplomacy, politics and words of intelligent observations. Chanakya was a philosopher, saint, powerful leader, ruthless but noble administrator, economist, a professor of Political Science and an excellent diplomat.

Chanakya is compared with the western political strategist Machiavelli who came about 1800 years after him. It is wrong to say that Chanakya was devoid of all morals but that one should understand that the cruel monstrous kings and kings’ men were rightly meted out with such beautifully cunning policies. Without such strategies it was impossible for one to out crush such political fiends in favour of the common people.

Chanakya worked not for himself nor can he be called a greedy ambitious pseudo saint. He was a true ‘Karma yogi’ in the Indian philosophical tradition. He aspired at establishing three basic conditions of - an ideal welfare utopia aiming at the wellbeing and benefit of the common and the rich alike, an ideal king with a noble lifestyle extremely strong in body, mind and vision and thirdly, making India a single unified nation that works for the happiness of all. Chanakya could achieve all of these successfully in a period of 24 years.

Had Chanakya existed during the time the Portuguese and the Britishers or even when the Mughals attacked this country, perhaps the history might have very different. We need Chanakya even more today, for India can only prosper if political leadership is honest, selfless and noble.