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Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s34: Yuktas

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s34

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Yuktas

c11.s34.1

The mahāmātras met periodically in Councils and discussed matters of common interest in the administration of their respective charges. They had control over the Yuktas of the Accounts Department (Gaṇanā) and issued instructions to them to secure moderation in the expenditure of public funds and in the accumulation of treasury balances⁶. In the sixth Rock-Edict Aśoka makes a statement which provides a glimpse into some details of administrative practice. ‘And if in the Council (of mahāmātras) a dispute arises, or an amendment is moved, in connection with any donation or proclamation which I myself am ordering verbally, or (in connection with) an emergent matter which has been delegated to the mahāmātras, it must be reported to me immediately, anywhere, (and) at any time.’

c11.s34.2

⁶ RE. III E. Here I follow D. R. Bhandarkar and Smith in preference to Lüders and Hultzsch. True this rendering looks like the abrupt introduction of a new idea : but sharp transitions are not uncommon in the Edicts : and the preceding sentence having commended to individuals the merit of moderation in expenditure and in possessions, the statement that the same principle was observed in the administration of public finance is not a serious break in the sequence of thought.

c11.s34.3

The issue of oral orders by the king to be recorded and executed by ministers and other officials was an abiding feature of Indian polity; the continuous interest in the execution of such orders evinced by Aśoka was peculiar to him. The *parishā* (Council) of the Edicts is clearly the *mantri-parishad* of the *Arthaśāstra*¹; but neither from the Edicts nor from the *Arthaśāstra* do we get a complete picture of its composition and duties.

c11.s34.4

¹ Hultzsch p. 5 n. 7.

c11.s34.5

The higher officials were required to go on tours of inspection (*anusaṃyāna*) generally once in five years, but once in three years in the provinces of Ujjayinī and Takṣaśilā. Among these officials were Yuktas, Rājūkas and Prādeśikas. The term *Yukta* is general, and known also to the *Arthaśāstra*; in the second Kalinga edict, Aśoka says that in all the divisions (*deśa*) of the province he will maintain officers (*ayutikas*) for the carrying out of his policy. Prādeśika may well be the *pradeṣṭṛ* of the *Arthaśāstra*; he has been taken to correspond to the District officer (Collector) of modern times and his rank may have been that of a *mahāmātra*, though of this we have no certainty. The officers going on tour were, at least some of them, specially selected for their personal qualities of moderation and gentleness, and they had other duties, particularly to supervise the judicial administration².

c11.s34.6

² RE. III C: Sep. E. Dhauli Z. CC: Jaugaḍa II L. Hultzsch p.5.n.3. Thomas (IA. 1915 pp. 97-112) derives *prādeśika* from *pradeśa* meaning report and compares *tena pradeśena* of KA ch. 39 with *etena vyañjanena* of the edicts.

c11.s34.7

The *purushas* (agents) were other officers who were organised under three different grades, and those who, as already noted, served as liaison officers between the Rājūkas and the king, must have belonged to the highest grade; they are said to be occupied with many people, like the Rājūkas. A similar class of officers newly created by Aśoka were the *prativedakas* (reporters) who were posted everywhere, as he says, ‘in order to report to me the affairs of the people at any time, while I am eating, in the harem, in the inner apartment, even at the cowpen, in the palanquin, and in the parks’. There were *purushas* of middling and lower rank also; but we have no knowledge of the exact nature of the work entrusted to them³.

c11.s34.8

³ Purushas PE. I. E. : IV G : VII M. Prativedakas RE. VI B. Also Hultzsch p. xli.

c11.s34.9

Other officers mentioned in the edicts are—*Vachabhūmikas*, controllers of cow-pens, whose duties must have been similar to those of the *go-adhyaksha* of the *Arthaśāstra*, and other groups (*nikāya*) of officials whose names and duties are not specified¹. The Seventh Pillar-Edict also mentions many chief officials, or departments according to Thomas, occupied with the delivery of gifts made by the king, his queen, his children, and the sons of other royal princesses (*devikumāras*) both in the capital city and in the provinces². Obviously there are many gaps in our knowledge of the details, and the inscriptions are by no means a complete manual of administration.

c11.s34.10

¹ RE. XII M.

c11.s34.11

² PE. VII CC-DD.

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