Tribes in Ancient India c50.119

c50.119

Great soldier and conqueror as Candragupta admittedly was, he was no less great as an administrator. We have a beautifully complete and detailed account of the system of administration in vogue in his time from the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya who is generally supposed to have been his chief minister, and the few fragments of Megasthenes which have survived amply corroborate this picture. The edicts of Aśoka again confirm in many respects the particulars of the organisation of the empire given by Kauṭilya and Megasthenes. The supreme government, it appears from Kauṭilya’s work, consisted of two main parts: (1) The *rājā*, on the one hand, and (2) the *Mahāmātras*, *Amātyas* or *Sacīvas* (ministers) on the other. At the head of the State was the sovereign (*rājā*) who had military, judicial, and legislative as well as executive functions, but was never the spiritual head. In addition to the *Mantrins*, there was the *Mantripariṣad* or Assembly of Imperial Councillors. In several passages of the *Arthaśāstra*, the *Mantrins* are sharply distinguished from the *Mantripariṣad*. The members making up the latter body evidently occupied an inferior position, their salary being 12,000 *paṇas*, while that of a *Mantrin* was 48,000 *paṇas*.¹