India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s1.14

c12.s1.14

ASHAḌAKSHĪṆA (V.4.7, *SECRET COUNSEL*)—It literally means 'that which is not seen by six eyes'. The *Kāśikā* explains it to mean deliberation between two persons only, and not more (*ashaḍakshīṇo mantraḥ, yo dvābhyāmeva kriyate, na bahubhiḥ*). In the political evolution of the *Mantri-Parishad* and with the emergence of the office of the Prime Minister, there was a tendency to form a smaller body inside the *Parishad* for more effective and responsible deliberation. As to the number of ministers constituting this Inner Body, Kauṭilya supplies valuable information recording the views of earlier political thinkers like Piśuna, Pārāśara, Viśālāksha and Bhāradvāja. Kauṭilya states that the number of ministers should be three or four (*Artha.* I.15, p. 28). In this matter the most forceful view was that of Kaṇiṅka Bhāradvāja, the severe theorist who advocated the system of one-minister cabinet (*Guhyam eko mantrayeteti Bhāradvājaḥ*, *Arth.* I.15, p. 27). This was the *ashadakshīṇa mantra* referred to by Pāṇini, i.e. the secret counsel of the king and the chief minister only, in which 'six eyes' had not participated. It signified the same thing as *shaṭ-karṇo bhidyate mantraḥ* of later literature. *Bhāradvāja* held that a plethora of councillors betrayed the secret (*mantri-paramparā mantraṁ bhinatti*, *Artha.* I.15; cited in the *Kāśikā* on V.2.10). This view was disputed by Viśālāksha who, perhaps true to the veiled suggestion of his name, was in favour of admitting more ministers to the secret sessions of the council.