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The Mauryan Polity c10.s3.t7: The nāgaraka and his duties

The Mauryan Polity c10.s3.t7

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The nāgaraka and his duties

c10.s3.t7.1

An examination of the administrative machinery shows that the *nāgaraka* was the chief official of the city, possibly a nominee of the Imperial Government. The *nāgaraka* may in some respects answer to the Corporation Commissioner of the modern day. He was an official of the state and was responsible to the Imperial Government for the conduct of the civil administration. His duties were many and varied. They can be categorically mentioned.⁴

c10.s3.t7.2

⁴ Bk. II, ch. 36.

c10.s3.t7.3

1. He was to preserve the peace of the city by keeping watch over the movements of strangers and new-comers into the city.

c10.s3.t7.4

2. He was to maintain an elaborate census of the houses and the residents therein noting their total income and items of expenditure.

c10.s3.t7.5

3. He took precautions against the outbreak of fire. People were forced to keep water-pots and other things which were useful to quench fire.

c10.s3.t7.6

4. He looked after the health and sanitation of the city. Stringent regulations were promulgated under penalty of punishment for committing nuisance on public roads, and for throwing dead bodies carelessly on thoroughfares, and for offences of a similar nature.

c10.s3.t7.7

5. He was to keep watch and ward by means of special watchmen especially during nights. No one was allowed to leave the city or move about in a late hour at night except in cases of necessity, when a permit was usually granted. Such of those who violated this were punished.

c10.s3.t7.8

6. He attended also to the sluices, embankments, and other buildings connected with the city so that no damage of any sort was done to them as it would cause inconvenience to the neighbours.

c10.s3.t7.9

7. He was to hold a supervising control over the antapālas at the military frontiers and the official in charge of the toll house. Perhaps they had to remit their collections through him.

c10.s3.t7.10

8. He kept in safe custody articles either stolen and recovered or found. These were however returned to the owners on their claim.

c10.s3.t7.11

9. If among the guilty were children, old men, the diseased and others he could set them free by receiving proper compensation price. Other prisoners were liberated on the king's birthday, and on similar occasions.

c10.s3.t7.12

10. He was also responsible for the public morals of the city. By means of police regulations he arrested and punished the suspicious and men of criminal tendencies. Those who misbehaved with slave girls and seduced the *kulastrī* or family woman were severely punished. He also looked after the religious and charitable institutions with the help of the managers of those institutions.

c10.s3.t7.13

Mention has already been made of *nāgaravyavahārika* as occurring in the Aśokan inscriptions.¹ These officers are also styled as *mahāmātras* as is seen from the Dhauli and Jaugaḍa Separate Edict I. The officers mentioned are of the provincial towns like Tosāli and Samāpa and not of the capital city. That these exercised important judicial powers is evident from the fact that the officers are taken to task for having inflicted arbitrary punishment including imprisonment to some of the citizens. The *nāgaraka* could not be expected to shoulder such heavy responsibilities single-handed. He was assisted by a body of officials called the *sthānikas* and *gopas*.

c10.s3.t7.14

¹ Separate Kalinga Edict I, *Corpus*, p. 92.

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