Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t6.11

c4.t6.11

The *Jātaka* kings who, not rarely, are found to have indulged in gorgeous luxuries, had obviously a rich treasury at their command. Did we not observe, while discussing the splendour and luxuries of kings,⁸ what a great amount of wealth they possessed in the form of valuable articles like perfumes, cloths and various kinds of pearls and jewels? There were officers employed to guard the various treasures of jewels (nānāratanagopakā).¹ The Heraññaka or the keeper of the king's purse was not an ordinary official.² Similarly the Bhaṇḍāgārika or the treasurer proper, was the superintendent of the storehouse.³ Besides these, there was the Valuater—the Agghakāraka who, on behalf of the king, valued the articles that came to the palace for sale.⁴ Thus it seems that the treasury of the Jātaka kings was richly furnished. To keep it efficient, and in order, accounts and records of income and expenditure must have been maintained, though we have no reference to this in the stories. The king lived amidst unbounded luxuries, while the cultivator groaned under the weight of taxation.