The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t11: 2. Nation-making under the Mauryas
The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t11
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2. Nation-making under the Mauryas
c11.t11.1
But for the present we have more facts about the earliest epoch of Hindu imperial polity than for any others. Under Asoka the Great (B. C. 269–232), as we gather from the Edicts, the Maurya Empire was divided for administrative purposes into at least four viceroyalties. These were intended for what may conveniently be called the northern, eastern, western and southern prefectures. A pucca "imperialist" was this Asoka, a fully self-conscious *chakravarti* or *sârva-bhauma*. The "problem of the empire" was a serious concern to him; and he set before himself the definite task of maintaining "uniformity in administration and penal procedure"⁵ throughout a territory, the dimensions of which were hardly to be attained in the annals of "haughty Rome" or by the ephemeral Napoleonic empire at its height (1808–1812). The viceregal staff and office organization in each prefectural province were accordingly modelled on those of the Emperor himself. Believer as he was in Śâkya's *appamâda* (energism and strenuous exertions),¹ Asoka was personally in charge of the home government comprising the capital and the central regions. The imperial executive of the Mauryas consisted of eighteen departments.² Each of these departments was helped by a board or boards of advisers. Uniformly with the six divisions of the municipal corporation of Pâtali-putra and the six divisions of the War Office, these boards of the Executive were constituted on the literal *panchâyatic* principle of the village assemblies; i. e., there were five members on each board.
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⁵ Pillar Edict IV.
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¹ Minor Rock Edict I.
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² *Artha*, I, Ch. viii, xv; II.
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The Maurya civil service superintended the rivers, measured the land “as was done in Egypt”, says Megasthenes, and inspected the sluices by which water was let out from the main canals into their branches so that every one might have an equal supply of it. The forest officers among them had charge of the huntsmen with the power of rewarding or punishing them according to their deserts. Taxes were collected by these authorities, and the occupations connected with land, e. g. those of wood-cutters, carpenters, blacksmiths and miners, fell within the scope of their supervision. Construction of roads was one of their important functions, and in this connection it is reported that pillars were set up at every ten *stadia* (i. e. a little over one mile) to indicate the by-roads and the distances.³
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³ *Meg.* XXXIV.
Linked texts (2)
- Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit
- Ἰνδικά — Μεγασθένης, Ancient Greek