Where is Chanakya said to have composed his Arthashastra?

Concept

Historical-place questions should be answered by matching a person or work with the learning centre traditionally associated with it. The wording “said to have” signals a conventional historical association rather than a claim about the modern archaeological location.

Application

Chanakya, also known as Kautilya, is traditionally associated with Takshashila as a scholar and teacher. Educational accounts therefore place the composition of the Arthashastra at Takshashila.

Contrast

• Sarnatha is chiefly associated with the Buddha’s first sermon near Varanasi.

• Nalanda became a major Buddhist monastic university in Bihar in a later period.

• Vikramshila was a Pala-period Buddhist learning centre founded many centuries after Chanakya’s traditional era.

Result

Thus, the place asked for is Takshashila.