Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c44.25

c44.25

§ 315. As a written *lekhya* became really the order of the Ministry on account of the routine, a king who wanted his personal orders to be observed must take recourse to oral commands and requests. And when an oral command was issued, according to the constitution implied here, the officers had to deal with the command of a thief in law, and to the anointed king in flesh and blood trouble was a certain consequence. We have, thanks to the inscriptions of Aśoka, an immortal evidence of this trouble. Aśoka issued orders regarding his proclamations and sermons (Sāvakaṁ) and gifts (*dāpakaṁ*), and the ‘Parisā́’ (Council) discussed the ‘orders’ and ‘shelved’ them. The angry monarch orders that he should be informed when his oral orders are rejected.¹