Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.s3.3

c8.s3.3

The Artha Śāstra describes the highly organized bureaucracy in terms very similar to those employed by Megasthenes, but in greater detail. Thus Megasthenes tells us that the district officers were in charge of the forests, temples, harbours, mines, roads, etc. He also describes the six Boards or Pañcāyats who managed municipal affairs. Kauṭilya describes no less than fifteen officials or boards of officials who supervised municipal affairs. But the general duties assigned to them are nearly the same. Thus Kauṭilya describes a Superintendent of Commerce and a Superintendent of Warehouses, who between them managed the market, fixed the market-prices, regulated the trade in agricultural produce, levied the subsidies for provisioning the army, and collected the royal tithes on goods bought and sold. These were almost precisely the duties assigned to the first, fourth, fifth and sixth boards in the polity described by Megasthenes.