State and Government in Ancient India c15.119

c15.119

Details of the routine working of the ministry can be gathered only from the *Śukranīti*. Though this is a late work, we may well presume that its account held good of the earlier periods as well. Śukra recommends that each minister should normally have two secretaries, but their number may be increased if the work of the department demands this step. Conversely if a department was very small, the secretary was often dispensed with.³ A secretary was often promoted to the position of the minister in due course, if he had proved his capacity by his work and achievements. Śukra recommends the occasional transfer of ministers from one portfolio to another. This was intended partly to offer scope to able ministers to get the charge of departments, more important than those to which they were originally appointed. That such changes in portfolioes were often taking place in practice is shown by the case of Pṛithivīsheṇa, who was first an ordinary minister, but was later promoted to the post of the War Minister¹ under Kumāragupta I.