Tribes in Ancient India c61.s5.32

c61.s5.32

There must have been officers who recorded the decisions of the Council. A passage in the *Mahāgovinda Suttanta* of the *Dīgha Nikāya* seems to justify this conclusion. In describing a meeting of the thirty-three gods in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven, it is said that after the deliberations were over, four great kings recorded the conclusions arrived at, and on this passage the translators observe, ‘This sounds very much as if the Four Great Kings were looked upon as Recorders of what had been said. They kept the minutes of the meeting. If so (the gods being made in the image of men), there must have been such Recorders at the meetings in the Mote-Halls of the clans.’¹