The Mauryan Polity c10.s2.t5.1

c10.s2.t5.1

Another body of higher officials went by the designation of rājuka or lājuka. It would be indeed interesting here to examine whether this office of the rājuka is mentioned in the Kauṭalīya Arthaśāstra. The term occurs in the work with a prefix ‘cora’, and the full designation is ‘corarajjuka.’² It would appear that the designation rajjuka is the more correct technical term and not ‘rājuka.’ It is not clear from what root the word derives its present form. Perhaps it comes from the old root rasj or rajj. Whatever this may be the passage in the Arthaśāstra throws welcome light on the rural administration of the land. Rural policy depended obviously on the nature of the territorial area. In the intervening places between any two villages was the officer in charge of the pasture lands (vivītādhyakṣa) and he was responsible to make good the loss occurring in his territorial jurisdiction. If the locality was not considered of sufficient importance from a commercial point of view, and the traffic was slack, there was the cora-rajjuka who was responsible for the security of the place. There were again other places where transactions were next to nothing, and in those places the people of the locality made their own arrangements for the upkeep of peace. Perhaps the responsibility was fixed in the village community.¹ In Chapter VI of Book II, the terms rajjūḥ and corarajjūḥ occur and are respectively interpreted as ‘income from the territory’ (viṣayapāladeyam), and as ‘income from the village for protection against the thieves.’² The officials in charge of such incomes were those who were connected with the department of revenue. Whenever they were chosen for specified interests, they were designated with a title, the prefix of which denoted the functions allotted to them. It may be presumed that they were officials connected with ‘survey, land settlement and irrigation’.³ This was also the interpretation which Bühler gave in discussing the phrase mahāvalabham rajjūkam⁴ when examining the Śātavāhana inscription containing a grant of Hārītiputta Satakaṇṇi of Bānavāsi of the second century A.D. That such officials existed is corroborated by the Greek authority, Megasthenes.⁵