Bharat Ek Khoj 11: Chanakya and Chandragupta, Part I

Bharat Ek Khoj—The Discovery of India
A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster
Episode 11: Chanakya and Chandragupta, Part I

With Satyadev Dubey as Chanakya, Ravi Jhankal as Chandragupta, Anjan Shrivastava as Dhanananda, Meeta Vashisht as Suvasini, Lalit Tiwari as Rakshasa, Vijay Kashyap as Shakatara, Devendra Malhotra as Ashvalayan, Zarvan Patel as Alexander, Irfan as Malayaketu, and Padmanabhan as Seleucus.

After the gradual spread of Buddhism in India, Nehru notes that there were processes to bring about racial fusion and amalgamation of the petty states and republics to build up a united, centralised state into a powerful and highly developed empire. Alexander’s invasion of the northwest gave the final push to this development and two remarkable men arose who could take advantage of the changing conditions and mould them according to their will. They were Chandragupta Maurya, a little-known ambitious youth and Chanakya, his friend-minister-counsellor, the Brahmin. Nehru cites Vishakhadatta’s classic Mudra Rakshasa, a play of the early Christian millennium.

Chandragupta accosts Chanakya, the budding author of Artha Shastra, on the Ganga-banks and gently persuades him to become his friend, philosopher and guide. Chanakya is misunderstood and insulted by the powerful Emperor Nanda supported by the prime minister Rakshasa of the Magadha kingdom. Exiled and enraged, both leave for Taxila to meet the Greek garrisons and eventually Alexander himself. Chandragupta is fired by ambition to emulate Alexander whose conquests and glory are well known, and waits for an opportunity. The news of Alexander’s injury and eventual death in Babylon (323 BC) is that god-sent opportunity when Chandragupta and Chanakya rouse the masses and capture Taxila immediately. Seleucus, Alexander’s general, makes an abortive attempt to re-establish the Greek authority by crossing the Indus, but is roundly defeated by Chandragupta and his allies, brought over by an appeal to nationalism. Under Chanakya’s counsel, peace with the Greeks is bought by Chandragupta marrying Seleucus’s daughter, ignoring his earlier betrothed Suvasini, the Magadha counsellor’s daughter.

At Nanda’s court, the lyrical Chhau dance of Suvasini mesmerises the Emperor who claims the danseuse to become his consort, against protestations of her counsellor-father, Shakatara who is imprisoned. Suvasini makes a reluctant bride, but concedes only when she is informed that the scheming Chanakya has freed her father and taken him to join Chandragupta’s entourage. Shakatara is strengthened with Chanakya’s assurance to the small inimical republics of peace and to Sariputra, Ganadhipati (chief of the republics), of autonomy of operations under the central kingdom. The scene ends with much bonhomie among the allies.

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