Question for September 28, 2010

Sorry for the extremely late post ...

X was an adviser to the first Maurya Emperor (c. 340-293 BCE), and was the chief architect of his rise to power. He has been considered as the pioneer of the field of economics and political science. In the Western world, he has been referred to as The Indian Machiavelli, although his works predate Machiavelli's by about 1,800 years. He was responsible for the creation of Mauryan empire, the first of its kind on the Indian subcontinent. Identify X.