It is believed that as a minister Chanakya had ordered the royal cooks to add a small amount of arsenic to the food served to the Emperor Chandragupta every day. He believe that it would make the Emperor immune to poisons and there would he no danger to his getting poisoned.
During that period murder by poisoning was the common practice to eliminate someone.
The Emperor was not told about it. One day his pregnant queen shared his food and died. She was in the advanced stage of pregnancy. Chanakya wanted to see if the child she was carrying could be saved. He got the dead queen’s belly cut open and the cild retreived. The child survived. But in the operation a droplet like depression got made on the body of the child. So, Chanakya christened him ‘Bindusara.’
When Bindusara came of age Chandragupta handed him the throne and retired to live at Sravana Belagola in Karnataka with Jain saint Bhadrababu. Later the ex-emperor starved himself to death in Jain tradition.
Chanakya continued to serve Bindusara as minister. Amatya Rakshasa had died. Another minister named Subandhu hated Chanakya who acted like a big brother being the architect of the empire. He poisoned the ears of the Emperor against Chanakya accusing him to be the murderer of the Emperor’s mother. Some nursemaids of the dead queen corroborated his claim. It angered Bindusara.
The news of the Emperor’s ire against him pained Chankya. He gave away all his wealth and property to the poor in anguish and grieving mood. Then, he sat on a pyre of cowdung and wood to fast unto death in protest.
Meanwhile, the Emporor came to know of the truth and rebuked the offender, Subandhu. He ordered the minister ran to Chanakya and begged for his forgivenss. Chanakya would not relent. The frustrated minister ran back to the emperor and revealed that Chanakya was furious at Subandhu and warned that he would be executed if he failed to get the forgiveness of Chanakya.
Subandhu ran back. He was an evil man. This time he managed to create an artifical accident in the form of the pyre catching fire and Chanakya getting burnt to ashes. So ended the story of a great and innovative thinker scholar son of India.
