Claim profile
1000–1 BC

The 1st millennium BC

Whose working lives fell in the 1st millennium BC. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 1st millennium BC, ranked where Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇮🇹 Italy🇹🇷 Turkey🇨🇳 China🇮🇳 India🇪🇬 Egypt🇫🇷 France🇯🇵 Japan🇪🇸 Spain🇧🇷 Brazil🇩🇪 Germany
FieldAllPoliticiansHistorical FiguresWritersAcademicsModelsArtistsScientistsReligious FiguresDoctorsArchitects
  1. 1AshokaAshoka304 BC–232 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Historical Figures8 decades
  2. 2Chandragupta MauryaChandragupta Maurya340 BC–297 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Historical Figures9 decades
  3. 3ĀnandaĀnanda600 BC–500 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Religious Figuresnot measured—
  4. 4SariputtaSariputta568 BC–484 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Academics14 decades
  5. 5RāhulaRāhula534 BC–500 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Religious Figures0 decades
  6. 6KanadaKanada200 BC–160 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Academics19 decades
  7. 7BindusaraBindusara320 BC–273 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Historical Figures9 decades
  8. 8YajnavalkyaYajnavalkya800 BC–700 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Scientists17 decades
  9. 9AmrapaliAmrapaliborn 450 BC · 🇮🇳 Indianot measured—
  10. 10VikramadityaVikramaditya101 BC–19 · 🇮🇳 Indianot measured—
  11. 11PPingalaborn 150 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Academics14 decades
  12. 12AKAjita Kesakambaliborn 500 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Academics0 decades
  13. 13CleophisCleophis400 BC–1 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Actors0 decades
  14. 14YYāskaborn 500 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Writers2 decades
  15. 15Azes IAzes Iborn 100 BC · 🇮🇳 India0 decades
  16. 16BBadarayana350 BC–350 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Musicians8 decades
  17. 17VVararuchiborn 250 BC · 🇮🇳 India · Academics4 decades
  18. 18AzilisesAzilises100 BC–31 BC · 🇮🇳 India2 decades
  19. 19BKBhadda Kundalakesaborn 550 BC · 🇮🇳 India0 decades

How this is measured

  • Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
  • Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
  • Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
  • What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.