History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.333.4

v4.c62.333.4

The superintendent of passports (mudrādhyakṣa) issued passes to inhabitants of the country or foreigners for entering into or going out and the superintendent of pastures (II. 34) was to see the passes and devote himself to the care of pastures. Kauṭilya provides that a pass (mudrā) was to be given on payment of a māṣaka, that one could enter into or go out of a country only when one had a pass, that a person who entered without a pass was to be fined twelve paṇas and that the superintendent of pastures and his men were to examine whether persons not going by the royal road but through pastures had a pass or not and that the superintendent of pastures and his men were to convey the approach of thieves and enemies by beating drums and blowing conches and were to send messages about the entrance of enemies into pastures by means of domesticated pigeons carrying letters bearing the official stamp or by means of smoke and fire. The nāgaraka (the mayor of the capital or cities or the chief of the police in the capital) was to look to the affairs of the capital (or the big cities). A *gopa* (under the *nāgaraka*) was to superintend a group of twenty or forty families in the capital and an officer designated *sthānika* was to be in charge of each of four wards into which the capital was to be divided. Yāj. II. 173 mentions an officer called *sthānapāla* in connection with the finding of lost goods who appears to be the same as sthānika.