Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c43.36

c43.36

The king, according to Manu (VII. 57), should consult the ministers separately and then 'all of them together'—*i.e.*, as Medhātithi explains, in the council. This is exactly, almost verbally, what Kauṭilya lays down.² By thus discussing, the king was to derive benefit. The cleverest of the minister, who should be a Brahmin, was to be completely depended upon by the king, and entrusted with the execution of all the resolutions.³ All the business thus was to be left for execution in the hands of a Prime-Minister or Chancellor.