Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.s3.16

c11.s3.16

In the selection of ministers, it is not caste or family but merit and character which should matter. Here is an important principle in direct antagonism to the traditions of caste or aristocracy. Dignity and courtesy, energy and promptness, loyalty and devotion, purity and incorruptibility—such are the characteristics of good ministers. There should be ten principal officers of state—the priest, the vicegerent, the chief secretary, the commander, the foreign secretary, the judge, the scholar, the financier, the minister and the spy. The priest should be a man of learning and character, a master of the political and military sciences.