The Mauryan Polity c13.s12.19

c13.s12.19

✓(b) The *Arthaśāstra* speaks of a bodyguard of soldiers protecting the king. The statement that women armed with bows and arrows guarded the king in the palace is in correspondence with the *Kauṭalīya*.⁴ Evidently Megasthenes refers to these details when he simply mentions that just in front of the palace the bodyguard and a portion of the army were quartered.⁵ (c) With regard to the administration of justice, both the authorities do not mention the king as the administrator of justice. Both mention, however, judicial officers. But according to Megasthenes the king is present almost the whole day in the court.¹ This evidently refers to the engagement of the king in the court to decide cases of appeal.² This interpretation alone would be consistent with the statement of Megasthenes which definitely mentions a body of judges to administer justice and deliver judgment.³ Curtius is perhaps right when he says⁴ that the king's citadel was ever open to those who approached it. It could not be entirely an exaggerated statement, for the same is mentioned about Aśoka. It was expected of every righteous monarch to render justice without delay. Prof. Stein however contends that Curtius speaks of kings in general and not Candragupta in particular.⁵ Whatever this may be there seems to have been a practice in Ancient India that the king was always accessible to the people. The Arthaśāstra prescribes thus: “When in the court he shall never cause his petitioners to wait at the door, for, when a king makes himself inaccessible to his people and entrusts his work to his immediate officers he may be sure to engender confusion in business and to cause thereby public disaffection, and make himself a prey to his enemies. He shall, therefore, personally attend to the business of gods and heretics, of Brahmans learned in the Vedas, of cattle, of sacred places, of minors, of the aged, the afflicted and the helpless and of women. All this is in order (of enumeration) or according to the urgency or pressure of representations. All urgent calls he shall hear at once, but never put off; for when postponed they will prove too hard or impossible to accomplish."¹