Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c43.75

c43.75

A Prince royal in office was regarded as an officer. Bhaṭṭa Bhāskara calls him *Kumāra-adhyaksha* [‘Prince Officer in charge of Department’ who held the ‘reins’ of government.³ In Aśoka's inscriptions despatches to Presidency Governments are addressed to the ‘Prince’ and High Ministers, (Kumāra and Mahāmātras), the latter being called a Varga or Council.⁴ Evidently it is such a Kumāra whom Bhaṭṭa Bhāskara, rather his authority, called *niyantā* or ‘one who leads’ ‘by reins’ (*rajjubhiḥ*). The Buddhist books⁵ make Aśoka governor one time at Takshaśilā and at another at Ujjain (the capital of the Western Presidency) Maurya Princes of the blood royal governed with their Councils in the South⁶; while the conquered province of Kaliṅga was governed only by a Council of Mahāmātras. It is significant that Despatches from the Central Government, copies of which are given in the inscriptions, are never addressed to the prince by name; they are impersonal. The Princes, like the Mahāmātras (whom we shall presently discuss) were probably transferred as the two viceroyalties held by Aśoka indicate. In that case non-personal documents would be quite in form.