A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8.s3.59

c8.s3.59

star In the above list we have translated ‘amātya’ as minister. In the Arthaśāstra works, however, the term, strictly speaking, is a genus of which the councillors (mantrins) are a species. Thus Kauṭilya (p. 17) writes that the ‘amātyas’ who are purified by all the four tests should be appointed mantrins. The lexicon of Amara has preserved the same sense of difference between the two terms. It has (II. 8. 4) ‘mantrī dhīsachivohmātyaḥ anye karmasachivāstataḥ,’ on which Kṣīrasvāmin comments as follows: ‘tato mantriṇo anye amātyāh karmasahāyāh niyogyākhyāh.’ In later times amātya and mantrin became convertible terms. Thus Sarvānanda, commenting on the above verse from Amara, writes ‘mantritrayam mantriṇi.’