Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.s3.19

c11.s3.19

Government Officials in general. To begin from the bottom, the designation of the village officer is not mentioned. The villages should form a group under a Nāyaka. Ten such groups came under Nṛisâmantas. Over them came Sâmantas whose area of jurisdiction yielded an income of between one and three lacs of karṣas. The same designation is applied to autonomous rulers of a hundred villages. In between came an officer called Hinasâmanta or inferior Sâmanta who received the same salaries as Sâmanta but whose position was inferior. His functions are not specified. Over ten thousand villages stood the Ashapâla. Soldiers should not be employed in civil administration. Salaries may be assigned in land, but Śukra warns the ruler against the growth of hereditary interest. The king, indeed, must liberally endow lands for gods and temples, for parks and for public grounds, and also make grants to individuals. He must provide the peasantry with suitable dwelling-houses but he must never alienate his sovereign rights.¹