The Mauryan Polity c13.s1.1

c13.s1.1

Among the public institutions examined by Stein are first the roads. According to Megasthenes,² “The length from west to east as far as Palibothra can be stated with greater certainty, for the royal road is measured by schoni, and is in length 10,000 stadia.” The Greek expression in the *Indika* means the Indian *rāja mārga* or royal road. And it is argued that in the *Kauṭalīya* the road which goes from west to east is not the royal road but the high road which is a trade route (*vaṇik-patha*).³ This is an *argumentum ex silentio*, and it may be that Kauṭalya was aware of it and he had no occasion to mention it.