Originality is a function of putting together old ideas in new ways or of having a completely new idea, however you distinguish between the two. Machiavelli was completely unaware of Chanakya. The paradigm in which he worked was the Mirror of Princes, which were not marked by Machiavelli&#x27;s realism.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mirrors_for_princes" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mirrors_for_princes</a><p>Machiavelli&#x27;s &quot;The Prince&quot; was a break from a tradition which assumed that what was moral for a ruler was what was moral for an individual, just at a larger scale. As manuals for statecraft, instructions for how to achieve the goals of state it is far superior to the works that preceded it in the Western European tradition.<p>If you want to read more Machiavelli after &quot;The Prince&quot; try the Discourses on Livy, often considered the greater work, and definitely closer to Machiavelli&#x27;s own republican personal leanings.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli#Discourses_on_Livy" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli#Disco...</a>