The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c12.45

c12.45

Thus the affairs of the capital were administered by a board of thirty officers which attended to some of the matters jointly and entrusted the rest to committees of five each. Through these officers the state controlled and regulated the whole economic life of the city, besides performing some other functions. In the Greek account these officers are called Astynomi which was in Greece the designation of some public functionaries who partly corresponded to Roman aediles. It is interesting that in ancient India, Greece and Rome alike public buildings, both religious and secular, were entrusted to a definite class of officers. The record of the census in ancient India is interesting but unfortunately we are not told whether it was confined to the capital or whether it obtained throughout the country. It is probable, though we have no documentary evidence to prove, that the system of administration which prevailed at Pāṭaliputra obtained in other cities also.