Biting the bullet

The story goes that young Chanakya assassinated King Porus after striking a bargain with his ally to defeat the arrogant King Dhanananda in return for half of the Nanda kingdom. Subsequently, Chanakya dispatched vishakanyas—female seductress fed on poison— to assassinate Porus. True or not, Chanakya was also a great spymaster whose treatise on statecraft Arthashastra has details about the craft of espionage. The Arthashastra has four kinds of espionage strategies that concern domestic and foreign spy operations: sama ; dama ; danda and bheda.