The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c12.34

c12.34

Making allowance for possible exaggerations, it must be admitted that the activity of the state covered a wide range even over the countryside. Unfortunately, Megasthenes gives no idea of the structure of local government. But he makes it clear that the administration of the capital was of a very intense character. Candragupta's capital Pâṭaliputra, called Pâlibothra by the Greeks, was situated on the confluence of the Ganges and the Son² and, says Strabo, was “eighty stadia in length and fifteen in breadth. It is of the shape of Pâṭaliputra.