State and Government in Ancient India c16.114

c16.114

The state claimed proprietary rights in all the mines. It had a special department, which engaged geologists and metallurgists to examine the prospective sites. The state would itself work out such mines as appeared promising and give the rest to private industrialists, who were required to surrender a certain portion of the mineral yields to the state as its royalty.⁵ The offices of this department figure as late as in the Gāhadawāla records.⁶