Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c43.108

c43.108

§ 304. Aśoka's **rājūka ministers** (§ 318) who had the fullest authority to rule over the *prajā* (subjects) and to grant them *anugrahas*, and in whose hands the king left the prajā as a mother leaves her child in the hands of a known nurse (Pillar Proclamation IV), and who were declared supreme in the matters of *daṇḍa* (administration) and *abhihāra* (declaring hostilities), seem to be identical with the *mantra-dharas* or *mantra-grāhas*. *Rājūka* signifies the 'ruling minister,' literally it denotes 'the holder of the reins [of Government]' like Bhaṭṭa-Bhāskara's *rajjubhir niyantā* and that *Mantra grahas* of the Mahā-Bhārata. With regard to the use of the word *rājā* applied to them we should notice that the Prātimokha sūtra, quoted by Childers in his Pali Dictionary under *rājā*, says that the high ministers (*mahā-mātras*) were called *rājās*. The number of Aśoka's Rājūkas was certainly more than one, they being generally referred to in the plural.