Rakshasa (amatya)
character in the ancient Indian Sanskrit-language play Mudrarakshasa
Rakshasa is a character in the ancient Indian Sanskrit-language play Mudrarakshasa. In the play, he holds the post of Amatya (prime minister) in the Nanda and Maurya courts of Magadha. Originally a minister of the Nanda king, he escapes during Chandragupta Maurya's conquest of the Nanda empire. He then makes several attempts to overthrow Chandragupta, but each time, he is outsmarted by Chandragupta's advisor Chanakya. Finally, he agrees to give up the resistance, and accepts the post of amatya in the Maurya court.
Mudrarakshasa
Rakshasa appears in Vishakhadatta's play Mudrarakshasa.
In the Mudrarakshasa, Chanakya feels insulted by the Nanda king and overthrows him with help of his protege Chandragupta and another powerful king Parvateshvara (or Parvata). Nanda's prime minister Rakshasa escapes the royal capital Pataliputra and makes several attempts to overthrow Chandragupta. For example, he sends a vishakanya (poison girl) to assassinate Chandragupta. Chanakya makes this girl assassinate Parvata instead, with the blame going to Rakshasa.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q99541643. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rakshasa (amatya)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.