Hindu Administrative Institutions c9.s2.43

c9.s2.43

These and other considerations indicate Kauṭalya’s great regard for the welfare of the people. Far from being selfishly autocratic, the Mauryan state must have taken an abiding interest in the well-being of its citizens. It is not difficult to infer from these various regulations that the principles of taxation were sound and the administration was efficient. The theories of early writers like Maine who called the Hindu States ‘tax-collecting institutions’, have little justification at any rate in regard to Mauryan times.