Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s34.7

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.