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chance he may be yet alive. He finds out that the lion, for all its roarings and
pacings up and down, is only an automaton. He thrusts a red hot iron into
it, and the wax of which the lion is made melts and runs out of the cage. After
this, Chandragupta is received into confidence and appointed to the office of
director of the royal public banquets. In this office he makes the acquaintance
of Chánakya, a very wise and learned, but also very proud and irascible Brahmin.
Chánakya is grossly insulted by the Nandas at one of the public banquets,
and vows to exterminate them and to give the throne to Chandragupta from
whom he had received respect and consideration. As a sign of this resolution he
vows never again to bind up his long hair (which had become unloosed in the
scuffle while he was being dragged out of the banqueting hall) till his dire pur-
pose is fulfilled. He quits the city and as the first step, repairs to his friend
Indrasarmma, a great magician. Indrasarmma first by his incantations makes
the Nanda princes fall ill, then disguised as a Buddhist sacred mendicant, he
repairs to the city, persuades the princes that their illness is caused by
Chánakya's incantations, and cures them, and thus gains their confidence.
Cháanakya (whom Chandragupta has now openly joined), raises against the
Nandas the king of Malaya, a mountain region on their borders, and induces
that prince to gather together a large army and march against Kusuma-
pura.
Thus Rákshasa and Chánakya now become openly pitted against each
other. But Rákshasa stands high in Chánakya's estimation and Chánakya is
resolved to detach him from the Nandas, and secure his services as the prime
minister of his protegé, Chandragupta. Each is a master in the art of "polity"
(Naya or Niti) and each proceeds to intrigue against the other-Chánakya for
the gratification of his revenge, Rákshasa for the defence of his beloved patrons.
Chánakya with the assistance of his mountain allies succeeds in overthrowing
the Nandas, who are slain. Chánakya now disembarrasses himself of his allies,
whose claims are troublesome. The "mountain-king" is disposed of by a magic
"Envenomed Damsel" (whose embraces and very breath are fatal)-originally
intended for Maurya by Rákshasa, Another device also originally machinated
by Rakshasa for Chandragupta's benefit, the pretended accidental fall of part
of a triumphal arch, is turned against the mountain-king's brother, and his
son now alarmed for his own safety, is induced to flee. Sarvártthasiddhi also
flees, and dwells in the forest where however Chánakya finds means to have
him poisoned. Rakshasa resolving at least to avenge his patron joins Malaya
Kétu the son of the dead mountain-king, and induces him to become a competi
tor for the Nanda kingdom. Malaya Kétu collects an army, is joined by many
foreign allies Greeks, Bactrians, and even Cambodians and marches against
Chandragupta, who is now scated on a somewhat uneasy throne in Kusuma-
pura, with Chánakya as his prime minister-Rákshasa being on the other
hand prime minister to Malaya Kétu. Chánakya still continues his work,
