State and Government in Ancient India c16.43

c16.43

Modern governments usually differentiate between the head of the department and the minister in charge of it. This distinction is primarily due to the ministers being drawn from among the eminent persons in public life, returned by the electorate to the council or parliament. In ancient times however it did not exist in most countries. In ancient India we sometimes find a minister rising to the position of a commander-in-chief; thus Pṛithvīsheṇa, who was first only a minister, later became the commander-in-chief under Kumāragupta I.¹ It is very likely that the chief justice and the minister for law, the commander-in-chief and the minister for war, were not always different.