Polyura athamas, the common nawab, is a species of fast-flying canopy butterfly found in tropical Asia. It belongs to the Charaxinae (rajahs and nawabs) in the brush-footed butterfly family (Nymphalidae). It occurs in the Himalayas from Kashmir to Sikkim, the hills of Central India and the Eastern Ghats, the Western Ghats and Southern India, Ceylon, Assam, Cachar, and via Myanmar and the Tenasserim Hills far into Indonesia. In August 2016 a specimen was spotted and caught in Palawan, Philippines.