The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c13.s1.16

c13.s1.16

The most serious point, however, is that we are not told how the mahāmātras themselves render their accounts.²⁰ Even if one wants to avoid the argumentum e silentio, the reticence on this important point cannot be overlooked. If, then, the mahāmātras on the one hand are the judges in the auditing process and on the other hand do not render their own accounts in any clearly prescribed way, they are more like a body of cosharers with the king than regular bureaucrats. The elaborate bureaucratic procedure, thought out to ensure the king's independence of action, comes to nought, and the king is once again no more than a primus inter pares.