Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c10.44

c10.44

Inspectors (*Pradeshṭāras*). The Revenue Minister also enforced the working of this administrative system by means of Inspectors going about the country in disguise as Informers to inspect the Records and Accounts kept by the District and Village Officers regarding the cultivated fields, homesteads (*gṛiha*) and families (*kula*); (a) fields under the heads of area and output (*māna-saṁjātābhyāṁ kshetrāṇi*); (b) households under the heads of revenue assessed (*bhoga*) and remissions (*parihāra*); and (c) families under the heads of caste, occupation, number of members (*jaṅghāgra*, counted as per pair of feet and not per head), income and expenditure. They had also to inform themselves of the movements of the people, to and from the village, of doubtful characters (*anarthyānām*), “such as dancers, actors and the like,” and of foreign spies.