The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.199

v1.c26.199

The account which Megasthenes gave of the various officials points to a highly organised bureaucracy. They were, he said, of three kinds: (1) *Agronomoi* [surely *ἀγρονόμοι* should be read for *ἀγορανόμοι*], district officials; (2) *astynomoi*, town officials; and (3) members of the War Office. The duties of the first kind were to supervise (1) irrigation and land-measurement, (2) hunting, (3) the various industries connected with agriculture, forestry, work in timber, metal-foundries, and mines, and they had (4) to maintain the roads and see that at every ten *stadia* (the sixth part of a *yojana*¹) there was a milestone, indicating the distances² (this is the passage which proves that Megasthenes did not mean to assert a general ignorance of the art of writing in India). The second kind, the town officials, were divided into six Boards of Five. Their respective functions were (1) supervision of factories, (2) care of strangers, including control of the inns, provision of assistants, taking charge of sick persons, burying the dead, (3) the registration of births and deaths, (4) the control of the market, inspection of weights and measures, (5) the inspection of manufactured goods, provision for their sale with accurate distinction of new and second-hand articles, (6) collection of the tax of 10 per cent. charged on sales. The six Boards acting together exercised a general superintendence over public works, prices, harbours, and temples. The third kind of officials constituted the War Office, and were also divided into six Boards of Five. The departments of the six were (1) the admiralty, (2) transport and commissariat, (3) the infantry, (4) the cavalry, (5) the chariots, (6) the elephants. Connected with the army were the royal stables for horses and elephants, and the royal arsenal. A soldier's weapons and horse were not his own property, but the king's, and they went back to the arsenal and the royal stables at the conclusion of a campaign³.