Hindu Administrative Institutions c5.7

c5.7

This theory would be reasonable enough if we can be sure that there is such a difference in kind or character between the description that we get from Megasthenes for the administration of the city of Pāṭaliputra and what is laid down in the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya. Judged by what we know of the administration of towns in later times, there seems to be nothing incompatible between the description given by Megasthenes and the institutions as described in the *Arthaśāstra*. Megasthenes probably attempted to describe to his countrymen, at least to the readers of Greek, the institutions as found in the Mauryan Empire in a way that they might understand. This necessity has naturally introduced modifications in the description which can hardly be regarded as an actual rendering in parts of the institutions that existed in Mauryan India. If we can make allowance for this, the differences shown do not amount to very much. We may therefore take it roughly that the institutions as described in the *Arthaśāstra* are more or less the Mauryan institutions as they obtained even in the imperial days of Maurya rule. To quote again Monahan's *Early History of Bengal*: