The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t22.18

c11.t22.18

sus¹ was an important institution of the Mauryas. It was used municipal corporation of Pâtali-putra as well as by the imperial service. The *gopa* or village magistrate, the *sthânika* or district strate, as well as the *nâgaraka* or mayor of the city were alive to mportance of vital statistics. The numbering of persons, houses cattle, as well as the measurement of lands, pastures and gardens ished the *samâhartâ* or collector-general with definite data for the valuation and assessment of the people's wealth.² The cadastral surveys organized by the Cholas³ in 986 and 1086 were also calculated to ensure the same end. Both these instruments tended to bring about centralization and consolidation of the public revenues and were indeed together with the war office, the judiciary and the executive service the most effective means of establishing *pax sârva-bhaumica*. The financial organization aimed at by the Hindu empires was thus akin to the "integration" of national outlays and revenues that has been the steady achievement of modern Europe since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. And in classical times it is the system of the Roman Empire with its official tax-collectors who replaced the *publicani* or revenue-"farmers" of the republic that should be kept before the mind's eye while appraising the public expenditure, national resources or heads of income, and financial administration of Hindu India from B. C. 322 to A. C. 1300.