Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s15.2

c11.s15.2

Under expenditure we should notice the maintenance of the monarch and his court and of the members of the royal family in due pomp and the salaries of ministers and other officials, high and low; these salaries are defined in the Arthaśāstra (V. 3), but neither the unit of currency nor the period to which the figures relate is expressly stated. Public works including buildings, roads and irrigation works, the demands of the vast army in its various branches, the erection of forts and arsenals and their proper equipment, grants to religious institutions of various kinds, the maintenance of the families of soldiers and civil officials dying in state service, the care of the unemployed and the indigent are other heads that figure prominently in the Arthaśāstra. There must have been a considerable outlay on industrial, mining, and other enterprises worked by the state which recognized a special responsibility towards skilled artisans. Herdsmen and hunters were encouraged by allowances granted to them to keep the land clear of wild beasts and secure the safety of the roads. Aśoka spent large sums in establishing hospitals for men and animals and raising gardens of medicinal herbs within his vast empire and even outside it.