History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c64.225

v4.c64.225

महामात्र--High Officer. Vide Kauṭilya I. 12, V. 1 &c. and Kāmasūtra V. 5. 17, 33 and 35. The word occurs frequently in the Aśoka inscriptions e. g. the two separate Rock Edicts at Dhauli are addressed to the Mahāmātras of Tosali (Corpus I. I. vol. I pp. 92, 95, 97, 99 and 175). In the Sohagpur plate (of about 300 B. C.) also the 'Mahāmatas' of 'Savasti are mentioned (E. I. XXII p. 1). In Nasik Ins. No. 22 in E. I. VIII p. 93 (about 1st Century B. C.) the word 'mahāmateṇa' is interpreted as mahāmātyena in Bombay Gazetteer vol. 16 p. 592, but it is better to take it as mahāmātreṇa. Manu employs the word mahāmātrāḥ (in IX. 259, which Medhātithi explains as 'mantrins, purohita and others', while Kullūka explains it as meaning those whose profession is to tame elephants).