Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t5.7

c4.t5.7

There are references here and there in an assembly—*parisā*. No doubt can be entertained on this point. But how far do they go in attaching a constitutional meaning is not quite clear. Scholars have tried to attach this technical meaning to it, and equated it with the *pariṣad* of Kautilya² and the *parisā* of *Aśokan* Edicts,³ which clearly mean a ‘body of Ministers’. It must be stated that among the several references to *parisā* that we have been able to trace in the *Jātakas*,⁴ there is not a single instance where the technical administrative meaning cannot be applied. But the fact of the matter is that, we cannot be too much certain on the point. It may not be unreasonable to infer that the ‘council of ministers’ of the *Arthaśāstra*⁵ was a later development of, and a smaller body than, the *parisā* of the *Jātakas* which seems to be a larger body of ministers.⁶ The *Jātaka* *parisā* was probably an intermediate stage between the Vedic *samiti* and the *Arthaśāstra* *pariṣad*.⁷