Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s12: District and Town Administration

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s12

Language: English

District and Town Administration

c11.s12.1

The revenue and general administration was carried on in the districts by *sthānikas* and *gopas*, with their own staffs of officials. The *gopa* had charge of five to ten villages in which he supervised the maintenance of boundaries, registered gifts, sales and mortgages, and kept an accurate census of the people and their material resources. The *sthānika* had similar duties in the district under his charge and the *gopas* necessarily functioned under him. The *sthānikas* were responsible to the *samāhartā* who command the services *pradeṣṭṛs*,² doubtless identical with the *prādeśikas* of the Aśoka inscriptions, for the supervision of the details of local administration. Urban administration was organised on more or less similar lines under a *nāgaraka* (city magistrate) with *sthānikas* and *gopas* assisting him, the *gopa* having charge of the details of a fixed number of families in the city instead of a number of villages as in the rural areas.

c11.s12.2

² *Ibid.* II. 35.

Linked texts (1)

Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit