History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.248.2

v4.c62.248.2

Vide also Grant Duff's History of the Marathas, vol. I. p. 193, and Rao Bahadur Wad's selections of *sanads* and letters (in Marathi) published by Messrs. Mawajee and Parasnis in 1913, where the names of the eight ministers of Shivaji are stated and their duties are described (p. 123). In the Śāntiparva (85. 7-9) it is declared that the king should have 37 sacivas, of whom 4 should be learned and bold brāhmaṇas, 8 valiant kṣatriyas, 21 prosperous vaiśyas, 3 śūdras and one *sūta* versed in the Purāṇas, but verse 11 adds that the king should discuss and settle lines of policy in the midst of eight mantrins and Śānti 83. 47 says that mantrins should not be less than three. In the Rāmāyaṇa (II. 100. 71) Rāma whom Bharata came to meet in the former's exile asks him whether he held consultation with three or four mantrins and (in verse 18 = Sabhāparva 5. 30) Rāma hopes that Bharata did not settle his policies by himself alone or in consultation with too many ministers. Kauṭilya also (I. 15) lays down that the king should hold consultation with three or four mantrins. The Nītivākyāmṛta (mantrisamuddeśa pp. 127-128) holds that they should be three, five or seven, that unanimity is difficult to secure in a group of persons of different characters and that when there are many ministers they are jealous and try to carry out their own ideas.