Kautilya

Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, lived in the fourth century BC and was the chief architect of the Maurya empire. Legend makes him a learned but ill-favoured Brahmin who, humiliated at the court of the Nanda kings, vowed to overthrow their dynasty. He discovered and trained the young Chandragupta, helped him raise an army, overthrew the Nandas and founded the Maurya empire, the first in Indian history to unite most of the subcontinent, serving as its chief minister. In India he is regarded as the very embodiment of statecraft and strategy, and is often compared to Machiavelli.