Hindu Administrative Institutions c8.s3.36

c8.s3.36

Law, the minister of diplomacy with the fixed style: "This is not opposed to us" i.e., their departments had no objection. The minister of Revenue and Agriculture endorsed with the remark "The note is all right." The minister of finance: "Well considered"; then the president of the council inscribed in his own hand, "Really proper." Next the *pratinidhi* wrote: "Fit to be accepted": the *yuvarāja* following with "Should be accepted", in his own hand. The ecclesiastical minister endorsed "This is agreeable to me". Every minister affixed his seal at the end of his note. Finally the king wrote "Accepted", and set his seal. He was supposed to be unable to go through the document carefully and the *yuvarāja* or some one else was to make this endorsement for him which was shown to him. After this first stage was over the minute was signed by all the ministers as the council (*gaṇa*) and sealed with the seal of the council. Finally it was once more presented to the king who "without delay" wrote "seen" as he had not the "capacity" to criticize it.¹ On this Jayaswal remarks very pertinently: "The set endorsements are all in Sanskrit. This implies that the procedure belongs to the period of the Sanskrit revival which is now to be dated in the light of the history of the Śuṅga revolution between 150 B.C. and 100 A.C."²