The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c12.41

c12.41

Possibly, the person who closed the city gate was different from the palace door-keeper and was to be counted among the officers who had to look after safety and discipline in the city; still these also belonged probably to the class of *rájabhoggas*, the royal officers, as they were appointed and paid by the king and had to obey his orders. If a dangerous robber made the city unsafe, then the residents, as narrated in the Kaṇavera Jātaka (III. 59), went to the king with the request that he would arrest the "great robber," upon which the king charged the *nagaraguttika* with the arrest and execution of this man. That he was appointed by the king is evident from the conversation between the king and the Caṇḍāla; jokingly, the king calls here the *nagaraguttika* the "king at night." Judging from the insecurity which on account of the frequent mention of robbers and thieves in the Jātakas and other folk-literature must have existed in the Indian cities in ancient times, he was no small personage.