The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c21.101.2

c21.101.2

it has a machinery of central, provincial and district government, of fiscal and judicial administration, more elaborate than anything known to previous ages. It displays the workings of federal-feudalism on a grand scale. In another matter the Mauryan regime marks the culminating point of statecraft. The Hindu state which never recognised any limits to its scope of activity and which, off and on, concerned itself with every aspect of the material and moral life of the people, now stood forth as a great instrument of material comfort. Above all it shone forth as a missionary state which must promote morality and righteousness all around. The ideals proclaimed by the Emperor Aśoka were not always followed by the kings who came after him but the idea of the state as the great agency of moral and spiritual welfare never disappeared from India. After the Mauryan empire Indian History enters on a period of obscurity. But the facts and inferences which can be gathered from coins, inscriptions and literature prove that the Mauryan institutions of government did not die out. When the curtain rises again the Gupta empire displays the Mauryan institutions in a more advanced stage of development. The central officers are more numerous and more definitely posted. The administrative subdivisions are better marked out; offices like those of Bhogapatis and Viṣayapatis are familiar to all. The number of taxes has also increased.