Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c32.s1.90

c32.s1.90

(x) Only the empire of the early Mauryas could take note of exports and imports from Mahāvīsi (AŚ. II. 11) (=Mahāvṛisha of the Veda),³ the raisin wine *mṛidvī* of Afghanistan (Arachosia), the weights and measures of the Śibi (II. 19) and Mekalā and Magadha at the same time, of Uttarāpatha and Dakshiṇāpatha simultaneously, and provide punishment [from Pāṭaliputra] for defaming the Gandhāra country (above p. 156,*n.*). And only a minister very highly placed could have all the fiscal and military information which are contained in the A. Punishments for turning women into nuns, and for monks leaving families unprovided for could be laid down (II.¹) only in early Maurya rule of the first two emperors. Raising a prince on the unmarried daughter of a king (while even Niyoga is condemned in the Śuṅga times, *e.g.*, in the M. Dh. Ś.), knowledge of the epics different from the ones we have, are all indications of an early and pre-Śuṅgan date.