State and Government in Ancient India c15.41

c15.41

It is clear that this difference of opinion on the question is due to the differing needs of the different states which our writers had in their mind. Manu¹ and Kauṭilya² agree with each other in stating that the actual number of ministers should depend upon the needs of the situation in the state concerned. If the state was a small one or if its activities were limited in their scope, a small ministry of 4 or 5 would suffice. Such, for instance, was the case under the Śilāhāras, whose kingdom was a small one.³ In the age of the Jātakas, when the activities of the state were limited, we find that the ministry usually consisted of 5 members only.⁴ But in big empires the number of ministers was large. The foreign office itself had several ministers in charge of its different sections. Thus in the Śilāhāra administration, there was one chief foreign minister along with another minister in charge of the foreign affairs of Karnatak only, having also the full ministerial status.⁵ If a small kingdom like that of the Śilāhāras had two foreign ministers, larger states like the Maurya, Gupta, and Rāshtrakūṭa empires must have had several. The traditional number of ministers, however, seems to have been eight ; if more persons were necessary to discharge the duties properly, they must have been usually appointed as secretaries to the ministers concerned, as recommended by Śukra.⁶