History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.243.1

v4.c62.243.1

*Amātya*—The second of the seven elements of *rājya* is the *amātya*, which word may be translated as ‘minister.’ There are three words that are interchangeable though sometimes distinguished, viz. *amātya*, *saciva* and *mantrin*, the first being the oldest of the three. A Kārikā on Pāṇini (IV. 2. 104) teaches the formation of the word with the affix *tyap* (tya) from *amā* meaning ‘near or with’ (vide Mahābhāṣya, vol. II. p. 292). In Ṛg. IV. 4. 1¹³³ there is the germ of this word ‘O Agni! Go like a king riding an elephant, accompanied by his ministers’. Yāska (in Nirukta VI. 12) explains ‘amavān’ as ‘amātyavān,’ though two more explanations of the word are offered by him. The word *amātya* itself occurs in Ṛg. VII. 15. 3, but there it is an adjective and means ‘our own’ or ‘abiding in our house’. In some of the sūtras like the Baudhāyanapitṛmedhasūtra (I. 4. 13, I. 12. 7) the word amātya is used in the sense of ‘near male relations in the house’. Vide H. Dh. vol. II. p. 588 n. 1375. The word ‘amātya’ occurs in the sense of minister in Āp. Dh. S. II. 10. 25. 10 ‘The king should not live better or more luxuriously than his *gurus* (elders) and his ministers (gurūn-amātyāṁśca nātijīvet)’. The word ‘saciva’ occurs in the Ait. Br. (XII. 9) where it is said that Indra considered the Maruts as his ‘sacivas’ (helpers or comrades). The necessity of *amātyas* or *sacivas* is stated in graphic language by several writers. Kauṭilya (I.