Hindu Administrative Institutions c8.s3.4

c8.s3.4

In the chamber in which council meetings were usually held absolute secrecy had to be ensured and the cabinet therefore met in appointed places. The chamber was to be inaccessible not only to man but also to birds and beasts. Kauṭalya gives a categorical list of birds and animals which should not be allowed to frequent the environs of this special chamber. It was feared that news would leak out even through them. This may no doubt be an exaggeration, but still it demonstrates the extreme need of secrecy in the council. Among the birds and animals mentioned are parrots, dogs and deer.³ These are endowed with certain instinct by means of which they are capable of betraying the secrets. Cases upon cases in illustration can be quoted from the epics. In the *Mahābhārata* it is the dog of Ekalavya which took the Pāṇḍavās to his master by means of visible signs. In the *Rāmāyaṇa* one of the animals which indicated the path through which Rāvaṇa carried Sīta was the deer. Again in the *Araṇyaka Parvan*, Yudhiṣṭhira abandoned the forest because the deer at that place indicated to him that that forest was not worthy of his living there. Besides according to the sage Nārada and the *Chandogya Upaniṣad* there have been in ancient India masters versed in the language of animals (वाकोवाक्यं) and also of plants.