History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.326.1

v4.c62.326.1

Kauṭilya's work became the authority on Government and several inscriptions mention officers appointed according to the section on 'adhyakṣapracāra', which is undoubtedly a reference to Kauṭilya's 2nd adhikaraṇa. For example, in the Belava plate of Bhojavarmadeva (E. I. vol. XII. at p. 40) and in the Barrackpur grant of Vijayasena (E. I. vol. XV. p. 283) we have the words 'anyāṁśca sakala-rājapādopajīvinodhyakṣapracāroktān ihākīrtitān caṭṭabhaṭa-jātīyān janapadān kṣetrakarāṁśca'. It is not possible to do anything more than indicate very briefly the sphere of each *adhyakṣa*. The duty of the sannidhātṛ (II. 5) is to look after the construc-tion of the treasury house, the store-houses for merchandise, for grain, for forest produce, for arms and of the jail. The samāhartṛ (the Collector-General) is to exercise superintendence over the collection of revenue from forts, the rural parts, mines, embank-ments, forests, herds of cattle and roads for traffic (II. 6). The samāhartṛ ¹⁸⁴ has to divide (II. 35) the kingdom into four districts and to arrange the villages into three grades, viz. those that are exempted from taxes, those that supply soldiers and those that pay taxes in the form of grain, cattle, money, forest produce, free labour and other equivalents for taxes. It is the duty of the *gopa* to look after a group of five or ten villages under the orders of the samāhartṛ.