Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.s3.31

c11.s3.31

Over the whole administration the king must exercise a close personal supervision. He should keep a strict watch over government servants. In disputes and complaints he should side with his subjects, not with his officers. “He should dismiss the officer who is accused by one hundred men.” So, too, he must dismiss an habitual offender and punish those who go astray more than once. The king should issue stringent decrees forbidding his officers to be harsh or cruel in words. Royal officers and servants should live outside the villages and should not enter them without a permit. He must extend his particular protection to spies whose function it is to watch the doings of officials. They must be shielded from departmental rigours and from the wrath of those who might be offended with them. At the same time it is incumbent on the spies to speak the truth. If they deposed falsely they must be severely punished. Else the life and