Public Administration in Ancient India c10.94

c10.94

are known to have worked strenuously and unceasingly for the well-being of the State.¹ Asoka was an ascetic on the throne, whose principle of government was "protection by the Law of Piety, regulation by that Law, felicity by that Law."² "For the welfare of all folk," said Asoka, "is what I must work for—and the root of that again is in effort and the dispatch of business. And whatever exertions I make are for the end that I may discharge my debt to animate beings, and that while I make some happy here, they may in the next world gain heaven."³ Though Asoka worked exceedingly hard, he never felt full satisfaction in his effort and dispatch of business, and therefore he made the arrangement that "at all hours and all places—whether I am dining, or in the ladies' apartments, in my bedroom, or in my closet, in my carriage, or in the palace gardens—the official Reporters should report to me on the people's business, and I am ready to do the people's business in all places."⁴ Harsha also, like Asoka, was a royal ascetic. He personally supervised the affairs of his vast empire, and for the transaction of State business was incessantly on the move through his wide dominions.¹ Of him the admiring foreign traveller records, " His qualifications moved heaven and earth ; his sense of justice was admired by Devas and men. . . . His renown was spread abroad everywhere, and all his subjects reverenced his virtues."² "Through him," says the poet, "the earth does indeed possess a King (rājanvatī)."³