India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s1.47

c12.s1.47

MISCELLANEOUS DETAILS—We have already noticed the maintenance of a Civil List with respect to the allowances of the king's household, ministerial staff, and other government servants. Pāṇini, according to the requirements of grammar, mentions only a few names, *e.g.*, the Chief Queen, mother of princes and some of their personal attendants (IV.4.48), but that should be taken as part of a regular system which is elaborated in the *Arthaśāstra*. Salaried staff is termed by Pāṇini as *vaitanika* (IV.4.12). We learn from the *Mahābhārata* that salary was disbursed on a monthly basis (Sabhāparva, 61.22). Patañjali also refers to *bhṛitaka māsa*, or month as the unit of time for payment of wages (II.275), and *bhṛityabharaṇīya* or wages of employees (*Bhāshya*, I.370). The term *karmaṇya* (V.1.100) indicated efficiency arising out of adequately remunerated work, as noted by Kauṭilya (*etāvatā karmaṇyā bhavanti, Arth.* V.3, p. 247). Bribery is referred to (V.1.47); *e.g.* work for which a sum of rupees five was paid as bribe (*upadā*) was called *pañchaka*. The *Kāśikā* mentions the amounts of such bribes running up to a hundred or a thousand rupees. Reference is also made to the fabrication of accounts, *avastāra* (III.3.120), a term also known to the *Arthasāstra* with reference to corruption prevailing in government offices (*Arth.*, II.8, p. 65) which resulted in the embezzlement of government money (*kośa-kshaya*).