Public Administration in Ancient India c17.34

c17.34

Communications were kept up between the Courts of the different Powers through diplomatic agents. Even as early as the time of the Rig-Veda,¹ we hear of envoys, but the practice of attaching diplomatic agents to foreign Courts could not have been established until much later times. There were various kinds of such agents, and their powers and responsibilities differed a great deal. Some were Plenipotentiaries (Nisṛiṣṭārtha), some Ambassadors (Dūta), some Chargés-d’affaires (Parimitārtha), while the rest were mere conveyors of royal messages (Śāsanahara).² Plenipotentiaries had power to demand the observance of treaties, to declare war or conclude peace, and to issue ultimatums in emergent cases.³ Krishna, for example, was a plenipotentiary when he was sent by the Pāṇḍavas to the Kuru Court with full powers just before the Great War.⁴ The ambassadors kept their own governments fully informed of the activities of the Court to which they were attached. They lived on terms of friendship with the great Officers-of-State, and acquainted themselves with all the affairs of the country. In particular, they made it their business to ascertain the number, size, and positions of the forts and military stations, the strength of the army, and the strong and weak points of the State.¹ A Parimitārtha was sent to a foreign court on a particular mission and possessed limited authority. The diplomatic agents of the inferior type took note of intrigues against the ruler, and supervised the work of the spies ² engaged in collecting information.