India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s1.36

c12.s1.36

YUKTA—The *Yuktas* were a class of subordinate officers of whom Pāṇini mentions *Yuktārohī* (VI.2.81), which is the same as *yuktārohaka* of Kauṭilya (*Artha.* V.3. p. 248). His remuneration was fixed not as regular pay, but as an honorarium (*pūjā-vetana*) of 500 to 1000 *kārshāpaṇas* per year. His duties are not exactly defined but he may have been entrusted with the special task of breaking ungovernable elephants and horses (*avidheya-hastyaśvārohaṇa-samarthaḥ*, Gaṇapati Śāstri). The *Sāmaññaphala-sutta* mentions *hatthāroha* and *assāroha* amongst skilled workmen of the times. Under the *Adhyakshas* was placed the entire civil service consisting of subordinate officers or *Yuktas*. They were a regular feature of the Mauryan administration referred to both in the Asokan Edicts (R.E.III) and the *Arthaśāstra* (II.5, *sarvādhikaraṇeshu yukto-payukta-tatpurushāṇām*). Pāṇini's mention of both the *Adhyakshas* and *Yuktas* points to the fact that these officers had become parts of the administrative system a few centuries before Kauṭilya.