Legend

Thomas R. Trautmann lists the following elements as common to different forms of the Cāṇakya legend:

• Chanakya is born with a complete set of teeth, a sign that he would become king, which is inappropriate for a Brahmin like Chanakya. Cāṇakya's teeth are therefore broken and it is prophesied that he will rule through another.
• The Nanda King throws Cāṇakya out of his court, prompting Cāṇakya to swear revenge.
• Cāṇakya searches for one worthy for him to rule through. Cāṇakya encounters a young Candragupta Maurya who is a born leader even as a child.
• Cāṇakya's initial attempt to overthrow Nanda fails, whereupon he comes across a mother scolding her child for burning himself by eating from the middle of a bun or bowl of porridge rather than the cooler edge. Cāṇakya realizes his initial strategic error and, instead of attacking the heart of Nanda territory, slowly chips away at its edges.
• Cāṇakya betrays his ally the mountain king Parvata.
• Cāṇakya enlists the services of a fanatical weaver to rid the kingdom of rebels.
• Cāṇakya adds poison to the food eaten by Candragupta, now king, in order to make him immune. Unaware, Candragupta feeds some of his food to his queen, who is in her ninth month of pregnancy. In order to save the heir to the throne, Cāṇakya cuts the queen open and extracts the foetus who is named Bindusāra because he was touched by a drop (bindu) of blood or of poison.
• Cāṇakya's political rivalry with Subandhu leads to his death.