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The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t8: Checks and balances

The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t8

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Checks and balances

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This was not all. There were the chambers of the council and of the assembly where the representatives of the groups and communities sat and discussed the affairs of the state. One was the mantri-pariṣad of which the important official was the Purohita who was the king’s conscience-keeper, or in plain language, confidential adviser to the crown in matters spiritual and secular. In addition to other duties these ministers with the Purohita were to guide the king in the right path lest he should fall into pitfalls due to carelessness.¹ That these ministers of the Maurya kings discharged their duties properly is evident from the peaceful administration of the land during this epoch. A vast empire like that of the Mauryas could not be sustained for a long time if it were simply crushed down by the heavy weight of the iron hands of the king. The kingdom endured for a long time because the people willingly acquiesced in the administration of the land. They acquiesced because the kings ruled them justly and in a perfectly constitutional manner. In this connection it may be remembered that the empire depended on the dominant personality of the emperor. Whence once that personality disappeared from the arena of the empire, the latter collapsed. In other words, the empire arose under strong rulers and broke under weak ones.¹ There was, then, an institution, a council or assembly, the *pariṣad* of Aśoka inscriptions² which proved an effective check on the monarch by going astray from the ordained path.³

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¹ Ar. Śās., Bk. I, ch. vii.

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¹ See above, p. 74.

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² R. E. III and VI; *Corpus*, pp. 73: 52; 57-58 and 576.

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³ Two Indian scholars among others, K. P. Jayaswal and Dr. Bhandarkar, have identified not without reason the *Pariṣad* of the inscriptions with the *Mantripariṣad* of the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭalīya. (Bk. I, 14.) The interpretation suggested to the term by Lassen 'Assembly of the Doctors,' Senart as 'Clergy,' and Bühler 'Teachers and Ascetics of Schools,' falls to the ground in the light of the *Arthaśāstra*.

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The *mantripariṣad* of the *Kauṭalīya* was the Council of Ministers whose chief functions are categorically stated: to undertake a new work, to complete the work already begun, to develop other possibilities, and to enforce discipline in the administration. The king usually consulted his counsellors and the assembly of ministers as well, before he finally set his seal of approval or rejection of a certain decision. If an emergency presented itself the king summoned his counsellors and ministers and generally adopted the course of action suggested by them.¹

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¹ Ar. Śās., Bk. I, ch. xv.

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There are what we may call administrative Edicts² and from them we gather four facts among others: (1) The pariṣad enforced the execution of the king's orders by the officials; (2) it was summoned by the king whenever necessary for consultation and advice; (3) the king interfered with its work whenever differences of opinion arose amongst its members; and (4) it had a controlling influence over the officials of the state. After a close examination of these details, K. P. Jayaswal conclusively shows that the Council of Ministers was so powerful that the Emperor was virtually deprived of his sovereign authority.³

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² Bhandarkar, Aśoka, pp. 59-62.

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³ J.B.O.R.S., IV, 43; I.H.Q., Vol. I, Radha Govinda Basak: Ministers in Ancient India.

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