The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c29.69

v1.c29.69

The official system remained for the most part unchanged¹. The presence of Açoka's envoys even as far as the various Greek kingdoms is plainly contemplated. The general term denoting the superior officials is *mahāmātra*, while the lower, especially the clerkly ranks, are entitled *yukta*. The highest local officers 'set over many hundreds of thousands of people'—corresponding no doubt to the *sthānikas* of the Arthaçāstra—are mentioned as *rājūkas*², and with them are associated *prādeçikas*, perhaps the *pradeshṭris* whose functions we have already defined. It is to these officers that a number of the edicts are addressed. They are exhorted to adopt towards the people under their charge the mild, patient, and benevolent principles of the emperor himself: they are compared to nurses entrusted with the charge of children. An institution several times referred to is the *anusaṃyāna*, or periodical tour, still a feature of Indian administration. This was not an innovation on the part of Açoka, but a part of the system which he inherited³. However, he added to the duties of the touring officials, as early as his thirteenth year, that of following his own example in making their visitations the occasion of benevolent activity and religious propaganda. For this purpose, however, he himself organised a special ecclesiastical hierarchy of religious officers (*dharma-mahāmātra*), to whom these two functions were primarily assigned, and who moreover superintended the bounties of his own household, and those of his queens, his sons, and other relatives, and organised the activities of the committees and councils (*parishad*) at the head of the Buddhist, Jain, Ājīvika and other sects. The tolerance of all sects as regards liberty of residence in every district seems also to be a feature of Açoka’s own conception, as it is opposed to the rule of the Arthaçāstra (19, p. 48).