Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India/Chapter 2

by Vincent Arthur Smith

CHAPTER II
Extent and Administration of the Empire.

The limits of the vast empire governed successfully by Asoka for so many years can be determined with sufficient accuracy by the testimony of the Greek and Roman authors concerning the dominions of his grandfather, by the internal evidence of the edicts, and by the distribution of the monuments and inscriptions, with some aid from tradition.

The Indian conquests of Alexander to the east of the Indus, which extended across the Panjâb as far as the Hyphasis or Biâs river, quickly passed, as we have seen, soon after the death of Alexander, into the hands of Chandragiupta Maurya, and the four satrapies of Aria, Arachosia, Gedrosia, and the Paropanisadai were ceded to him by Seleukos Nikator about b.c. 305. The Maurya frontier was thus extended as far as the Hindû Kush Mountains, and the greater part of the countries now called Afghanistan, Balûchistan and Makrân, With the North-Western Frontier Province, became incorporated in the Indian Empire. That empire included the famous strongholds of Kâbul, Zâbul^[1], Kandahar, and Herat, and so possessed the 'scientific frontier' for which Anglo-Indian statesmen have long sighed in vain. There is no reason to suppose that the trans-Indus provinces were lost by Binduséra, and it is reasonable to assume that they continued under the sway of Asoka, who refers to Antiochos, King of Syria, in terms which suggest that the Syrian and Indian empires were eonterminous. Costly buildings ascribed to Asoka were seen by Hiuen Tsang in diferent parts of Afghanistan. Among others he mentions a stone stûpa, a hundred feet high, at the town of Kapisa, somewhere in Kâfiristân, and a remarkable building of the same kind,three hundred feet in height and richly decorated, at Nangiahâr, near Jalâlâbâd, on the Kabul river. The Swat valley also contained evidences of Asoka's passion for building^[2].

Abundant testimony proves the inclusion of the vale of Kashmîr within the limits of the empire. The city which preceded the existing town of Srînagar or Pravarapura as the seat of government was founded by Asoka, and is generally believed to be represented by the ancient site called Pândrethan, two or three miles to the south-east of the present capital. But the Muhammadan chroniclers locate Asoka's city at Sîr on the Lidar river, not far from Islâmâbâd and Mârtânda and more than thirty miles distant from Srînagar. Legend credited Asoka with having built five hundred Buddhist monasteries in Kashmir, and it is certain that his zeal was responsible for many important edifices, including some dedicated to the Brahmanical faith^[3]

The inclusion in the empire of the Nepalese Tarai, or lowlands, is proved conclusively by the inscriptions on the Rurnmindeî and Niglîva pillars which commemorate the pilgrimage of the sovereign to the Buddhist holy places in B. c. 249.

Genuine local tradition—not mere literary legend—confirmed by the existence of well-preserved monuments, attests Asokafs effective possession of the secluded valley of Nepal. The pilgrimage under the guidance of Upagupta, described in the last chapter, or another of the same kind, was continued, through either the Churiâ Ghâtî or the Gorainasan Pass, into the valley, the capital of which, then known by the name of Manju Péitan, occupied the same site as the modern city of Kâthmându. Asoka resolved to commemorate his visit by the foundation of a city and the emotion of massive monuments. The site selected for the new capital was some rising ground about two miles to the south-east of Kathmandu, and there the city now known as Lalita Piitan or Patan was laid out. Exactly in its centre Asoka erected a temple which still stands near the southern side of the palace or 'Darbar,' and at each of the four sides of the city, facing the cardinal points, he built four great hemispherical stûpas, which likewise remain to this day. Certain minor Structures at Pâtan also bear his name. Asoka was accompanied in his pilgrimage by his daughter Chârumatî, the Wife of a Kshatriya named Devapâla. Both husband and wife settled in Nepâl near the holy shrine of Pasupati, Where they founded and peopled Deva Pâtan. They were there blessed with a numerous family, and becoming age ddetermined to pass the remainder of their lives in religious retirement, vowing that each would build a retreat for members of the Order. Châirumatî had the good fortune to fulfil hor vow, and in due course died in the nunnery which she had erected. The building still exists at the village of Chabâhil, north of and close to Deva Pâtan. Devapâla is said to have died in great distress because he was unable to complete before his death the monastery which he had vowed to found. These things are believed to have happened while the Kirâtas, or hill-men from the east, ruled Nepâl and Sthunko was the local Râjâ^[4].

In Asoka's days, and for many centuries later, Tâmralipti, the capital of a small dependent kingdom named Suhmâ, was the principal port for the embarkation and landing of passengers and goods conveyed to or from Ceylon, Burma, China, and the islands of the Indian Ocean. There is no doubt that this important mart was under the jurisdiction of Asoka, who built a stûpa there, Which Was still in existence nine centuries later. The port Was destroyed long since by the accumulation of silt and changes of the land level. Its modern representative, the small town of Tamlûk, stands fully sixty miles distant from the sea. The old city lies buried under the deposits made by the rivers, the remains of masonry walls and houses being met with at a depth of from eighteen to twenty-one feet^[5]. Another stûpa of Asoka stood in the capital of Samatata or the Brahmaputra Delta^[6], and others in various parts of Bengal^[7] and Bihar.

It is thus manifest that the whole of Bengal must have been subject to the Maurya suzerainty. The conquest in B. C. 261 of the neighbouring kingdom of Kalinga between the Mahânadî and Godâvarî rivers, narrated in the preceding chapter, completed the circle of Asoka's sovereignty over India to the north of the Narbadâ. We do not know for certain in whose reign the southern provinces Were annexed, but it is probable that they were incorporated in the empire during the reign of Bindusâra, whose son is known from the Girnâr inscription of Rudradâman to have been master of Surâshtra, the peninsula of Kathiâwâr, in the far west^[8].

The approximate southern boundary of the empire is easily defined by the existence of three copies of the Minor Rock Edicts in Northern Mysorc (N. lat. 14° 50', E. long. 76° 48')^[9] and by the references in the Fourteen Rock Edicts to the Tamil states as independent powers. The frontier line may be drawn with practical accuracy from Nellore (14° 27' N.) on the east coast at the mouth of the Pennâr or Penner river to the mouth of the Kalyânapuri river (13° 15' N.) on the west coast. That river formed the northern boundary of the Tuluva country, which Was separated from Kerala or Malabar by the Chandragiri or Kangarote river (12° 27' N.), which still forms an ethnic frontier which no Nâyar Woman can venture to cross^[10].

Asoka's empire, therefore, comprised the countries now known as Afghanistan, as far as the Hindû Kush, Balûchistan, Makrân, Sind, Kachh (Cutch), the Swât valley, with the adjoining regions, Kashmîr, Nepâl, and the whole of India proper, except the extreme south, Tamilakam or Tamil Land. His dominions were far more extensive than British India of to-day, excluding Burma. The kingdom of Kâmaûpa, or Assam, in the north-east, seems to have been independent, and certainly remained outside the sphere of Asoka's religious propaganda. Hiuen Tsang, who visited the country in the seventh century, expressly aflirms that Buddhism had failed to obtain a footing, and that not a single monastery had ever been built within its limits.

The legends of Tibet, recorded in more forms than one, assert that the city and kingdom of Khotan, to the north of the Himalayan range, were founded during the reign of Asoka by the co-operation of Indians and Chinese who divided the country between them; and one form of the story distinctly states that 'all the lands above the river Shal-chhu Gong—ma were given to Yaksha, which thenceforth belonged to Âryâivarta [scil. India].' It is also alleged that 'Asoka, the King of Âryâvarta,' visited Khotan in the year 250 after the death of Buddha, and that he was the contemporary of Shi-hwang-ti, the famous Chinese emperor who built the Great Wall. The chronology certainly is approximately. correct, because Shi-hwang-ti reigned from 246 to 210, becoming 'universal emperor' in 221^[11], and Asoka's reign, as we have seen, extended from 273 to 232. The date of the alleged visit would fall in b. c. 237, on the assumption, sometimes made on plausible grounds, that Buddha died in b. c. 487. It is very remarkable that the Tibetan books alone have preserved an approximately accurate tradition of the dates of both Asoka and the death of Buddha. But, While duly noting that fact and admitting the probability of extensive intercourse between Asoka's dominions and Khotan, the evidence is hardly sufficient to justify the belief that the trans-Himalayan kingdom was subject to the political authority of the Indian monarch^[12]. It is admitted that Buddhism was not introduced into Khotan until a date considerably later. Asoka's propaganda in the Himalayan region seems to have been confined to the southern side of the main range.

The materials available for a description of the organization and administration of the enormous empire defined in the preceding pages are surprisingly copious. Megasthenes has recorded With the pen of an intelligent foreign observer a detailed account of the institutions of Chandragupta, and the assumption is warranted that the system of government developed by the genius of the first emperor of India was maintained as a Whole by his grandson, although supplemented by some novel arrangements and slightly modified by certain reforms. The systematic and invaluable treatise on the Art of Government ascribed to Kantalya, Kautilya, or Chânakya, the capable, although unscrupulous, minister of the first Maurya sovereign ^[13], and undoubtedly of early date, throws much Welcome light on the principles of government as practised by ancient Indian kings, confirming and explaining in many respects the Greek accounts which previously stood alone. Numerous particulars of the civil and ecclesiastical organization of the empire are revealed by close examination of the Asoka inscriptions, and careful comparison of all the data of various kinds enables the historian to say with truth

that more is known about the internal polity of India as it was in the Maurya age than can be affirmed on the subject concerning any period intervening between that age and the reign of Akbar eighteen centuries later.

Pâtaliputra, the capital of the kingdom of Magadha and the head quarters of the imperial government, stood on the northern bank of the Sôn, a few miles above the confluence of that river with the Ganges. The Sôn changed its course long ago and now unites with the larger stncam near the cantonment of Dinapore (Dhânapur) above Bankipore, but the old bed of the river can be readily traced and vestiges of the ghâts or steps which lined its bank can still be discerned. The capital, thus protected by two great rivers against hostile approach, occupied a strong, defensible position such as was much favoured by the founders of ‘Indian towns. The site is now covered by the large native city of Patna, the English civil station of Bankipore, the East Indian Railway, and sundry adjacent Villages. The belief at one time current that a large part of the ancient city has been cut away by the rivers is erroneous. Diluvial action seems to have been slight, and the remains of the early buildings still exist, but lie buried for the most part under a deep layer of silt.

The ancient city, like its modern successor, was a long, narrow parallelogram, about nine miles in length and a mile and a half in breadth. When Megasthenes lived there in the days of Chandragupta, it was defended by a massive timber palisade, pierced by sixty-four gates, crowned by five hundred and seventy towers, and protected externally by a broad, deep moat filled from the waters of the Sôn. Fragments of the palisade have been found at several places in the course of casual excavations. Asoka improved the defences by building an outer masonry wall, and beautified the city with so many richly decorated stone buildings that they seemed to after ages to be the work of the genii and beyond the power of human skill. I have myself seen two magnificent sandstone capitals dug up, one close to the railway and the other in a potato-field, which must have belonged to stately edifices of large size. Unfortunately, the depth of the overlying silt, often reaching twenty feet, and the existence of numerous modern buildings make excavation exceptionally difficult.

The royal palace, or one of the palaces, seems to have occupied the site now covered by the village and fields of Kumrâhâr, to the south of the railway, and the partial excavations carried out there by Dr. Spooner are sufficient to prove that remains exist suggestive of extremely puzzling problems. Further systematic exploration may reveal startling discoveries. I believe that it would be possible to identify many of the sites of the monuments at and near Pâtaliputra mentioned by the Chinese pilgrims, if a thorough survey were made by an adequate staff working with suitable appliances under skilled supervision, but the results of the praiseworthy efforts hitherto made excite rather than satisfy curiosity^[14]. The Kumrâhâr palace apparently was that of Asoka's grandfather. Chandragupta's abode, although probably constructed mostly of timber like the palaces of the modern kings of Burma, is described as excelling in magnificence the royal pleasaunces of Susa and Ekbatana. The pillars, we are told, were clasped all round with vines embossed in gold, and adorned with silver figures of the most attractive birds. The gardens were replete with the choicest plants and furnished with artificial ponds of great beauty. Those splendours have all gone beyond recall, but extensive and costly excavation, no doubt, would disclose something of the magnitude at least of the masonry foundations of the earlier buildings and possibly might reveal more characteristic remains of Asoka's stone edifices and inscriptions.

The administration of the metropolis was organized with much elaboration, and was confided to a commission of thirty members divided into six Boards of five members each—a development, perhaps, of the ordinary Hindu panchâyat. The first Board was charged with the superintendence of the industrial arts, and of artisans, who were regarded as servants of the State. The second was entrusted with the duty of supervising foreigners, and attending to their Wants, being responsible for medical aid to the strangers in case of sickness, for their decent burial in case of death, and for the administration of the estates of the deceased. The officials were also required to provide foreign visitors with suitable lodgings and to furnish them with adequate escort when returning home. The duties of this Board closely resembled those imposed upon the proxenoi of Greek cities, but in India the persons performing such duties were officials of the Indian king, whereas in Greece the prowenos, like a modern consul, was appointed by the state Whose subjects he protected^[15].

The third Board was charged with the duty of maintaining a register of births and deaths, which was kept up for the information of the Government as well as for revenue purposes.

The fourth Board may be called the Board of Trade, because it exercised a general superintendence over the trade and commerce of the capital, and regulated weights and measures. The tax on sales being one of the principal sources of the royal revenue, everything for sale had to be marked with the official stamp ^[16]. The rules about Weights and measures were laid down in minute detail. The fifth Board had similar duties in respect of manufactured goods. Traders were required to keep old and new goods separate, and careful distinctions were drawn between merchandise from foreign parts, that from the country, and that produced or made inside the city. The sixth Board collected the tax on sales, which is said by Megasthenes to have been one-tenth ad valorem, but, as a matter of fact, was levied at various rates. Evasion of this tax was punishable with death, according to Megasthenes as reported by Strabo. Chânakya lays down that 'those who utter a lie shall be punished as thieves^[17],' that is to say, by mutilation or death.

The documents do not supply similar details concerning the municipal government of the other cities of the empire, but the edicts refer more than once to the officers in charge of particular towns, and it is probable that the greater cities were administered on the same lines as the capital.

The court was characterized by semi-barbaric magnificence which Quintus Curtius considered to be carried to 'a vicious excess without a parallel in the world.' The stories about the king's golden palanqnin and other articles of ostentatious luxury may be accepted as true, because such extravagances have always been a weakness of Indian. Râjâs, and it would not be difficult to find parallels even in Europe. The Roman author was especially scandalized by the information that the sovereign used to be 'accompanied by a long train of courtesans carried in golden palanquins, which takes a place in the procession separate from that of the queen's retinue, and is as sumptuously appointed.' The statement quoted is supported by Chânakya, who speaks of such women ‘holding the royal umbrella, golden pitcher, and fan, and attending upon the king when seated on his royal litter, throne, or chariot^[18].’Everybody aequainted with modern India is aware that similar customs still survive.

The close attendance of female guards, not of the courtesan class, on the royal person is an extremely aneient Indian custom, which was observed by Ranjit Singh less than a century ago, and may, perhaps, still be practised in out-of-the-way States. Chânakya lays down the rule that the sovereign on getting up from bed in the morning should be received first by the female archers, whose appearance seems to have been considered of good omen^[19]. These Amazonian guards attended the king when he went out hunting in state, and prevented intrusion on the road of the procession, which was marked out by ropes. Death was the penalty of him who passed the barrier. Asoka, like his ancestors, indulged without scruple in such formal hunting expeditions during his earlier years, but when he began to 'exert himself strenuously' in the cause of the Law of Piety about B. C. 259, he suppressed the establishment of the Royal Hunt and substituted for the pleasures of the cl1ase the less exciting exercises of interviewing holy men, giving alms, and holding disputations on religious subjects during ‘ pious tours ’ similar to the pilgrimage wl1ich he undertook in B. C. 249.

Before the introduction of Buddhist puritanism the Maurya court used to amuse itself, not only with hunting, but with racing, animal fights, and gladiatorial contests. A curious form of racing, not now in vogue, was practised with a special breed of oxen, which are said to have equalled horses in speed. The car was harnessed to a mixed team with horses in the centre and an ox on each side. The course was about a mile and three quarters in length, and the king and his nobles betted keenly in gold and silver on the result. Animal fights were much enjoyed, elephants, rhinoceroses, bulls, rams, and other beasts being pitted against one another. Elephant fights continued to be a favourite diversion at Muhammadan courts up to reccnt times, and the unpleasant spectacle of a ram fight may still be witnessed at the palaces of many Râjâs. Such entertainments, of course, are abhorrent to the spirit of Buddhism, and all came to an end when Asoka resolved that there should be no more 'cakes and ale^[20].' His courtiers must have had a terribly dull time and often have sighed for the good old days of worldly-minded Chandragupta.

Communication between the capital and the provinces was maintained by the river waterways and a system of roads, the principal of which was the royal highway leading from Pataliputra to the Indus through Taxila, the forerunner of Lord Dalhousie's Grand Trunk Road. Distances were marked by pilla1's erected at intervals of ten stadia, or half a kôs, about an English mile and a quarter. Asoka added a well beside each pillar, and further consulted the comfort of travellers by planting trees for shade and fruit, and by providing rest-houses and sheds supplied with drinking—water. The communications must have been good to make possible the control of the whole empire from a capital situated so far to the east as Pâataliputra ^[21].

The imperial government was an absolute autocracy in which the king’s will was suprcme. From about b. c. 259 Asoka applied his autocratic power to the Buddhist Church, which he ruled as its Head. In the Bhâbrû Edict 'His Grace the King of Magadha addresses the Church with greetings and bids its members prosperity and good health,' and after this exordium proceeds to recommend to the faithful, lay and clerical, the passages from the holy books which he desires them to study with special care. Many years later, in the Sârnâth Edict and its variants, we find His Sacred Majesty declaring that 'the Church may not be rent in twain by any person,' and prescribing the canoanical penalties to be inflicted upon schismatics. Asoka's position finds a close parallel in that of Charlemagne, whose 'unwearied and comprehensive activity made him throughout his reign an ecclesiastical no less than a civil ruler, summoning and sitting in councils, examining and appointing bishops, settling by capitularics the smallest points of Church discipline and polity^[22].'

The imperial orders, whether in purely civil or in ecclesiastical matters, between which nice distinctions were not drawn, were communicated through an organized body of officials, the superior grades of

whom were called mahâmâtras, and the lower ranks were known as yuklas^[23]. When a mahâmâtra or yukta was assigned to a. special department, his sphere of duty was indicated by a prefix to the generic title. The less civilized tribes on the frontiers and in the jungles were governed by their own chiefs subject to the general control of the paramount power, and we may be assured that large portions of the empire were administered by local hereditary Râjâs, who would have been left very much to their own devices as long as they supplied the men and money demanded by their suzerain. But the inscriptions, with one exception, do not mention such Rajfis in the settled provinces, and the view concerning them expressed above is based on the general course of Indian history^[24].

The authorities, that is to say, Megasthenes, Chânakya, and the edicts, rather seem to imply that all the work of administration was done by Crown officials. The princely Vieeroys stood at the head of the bureaucracy. Four of them—the Princes of Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali, and Suvarnagiri—are mentioned in the edicts^[25], and there may have been others. The Vice-royalties of Taxila and Ujjain are known also from literary tradition, which represents Asoka as having governed both those distant provinces previous to his accession. The Prince of Taxila may be presumed to have controlled at least the Panjâb and Kashmîr. The country now called Afghanistan may have been in charge of another Viceroy, who does not happen to have been mentioned. The Prince of Ujjain would have lieen responsible for Mâlvâ, Gujarât, and Surâshtra. The Prince of Tosali presumably was Governor of the annexed province of Kalinga, and the Prince of Suvarnagiri seems to have been Viceroy of the South^[26].

The more central regions of the empire apparently were administered by officials appointed directly from the capital, without the intervention of any Prince. The distribution of the Pillar inscriptions gives a rough indication of the extent of the home provinces, while the Rock inscriptions occur only in outlying regions.

The Râjûas, 'set over hundreds of thousands of souls,' probably came next in rank to the Viceroys. The modern term Governor may serve as a rough equivalent. Below them came the Prâidesikas, or District Officers, and both classes seem to have been comprised under the general name of mahâmâtras. A host of petty officials, yuktas and upayuktaas, clerks and underlings of sorts, carried out the orders of their superiors. The king and his great officers, of course, had their secretariat establishments, worked by secretaries, or lekhakas^[27]. All the evidence goes to show that the civil administration was highly organized for purposes of both record and executive action.

Departments were numerous. Megasthenes was impressed by the working of the Irrigation Department, which performed functions similar to those of the corresponding institution in Egypt, regulating the sluices so as to distribute the water fairly among the farmers. The Rudradaman inscription at Girnar gives us a glimpse of the actual working of the Department, which had embanked the lake at Girnar in the time of Chandragupta Maurya, and under Asoka's Persian (Yavana) Râjâ, Tushasphâ, had equipped it with the needful watercourses. This instance shows the care that was taken to promote agricultural improvement and so to develop the land revenue, even in a remote province distant more than a thousand miles from the capital. The farmers did not get the water for nothing. It was supplied on strictly business principles, and paid for by heavy water rates (udukabhâgam) varying from one-fourth to one-third of the produce, according to the mode of irrigation^[28].

The land revenue, or Crown rent, as always in India, was the mainstay of the Treasury. All agricultural land was regarded as Crown property, and the normal theoretical share of the State was either one-fourth or one-sixth of the produce, in addition to water rate, if any, and a host of other dues and cesses. People who grumble at modern assessments will find if they study history that their ancestors often were much more severely fleeced. Chânakya, without the slightest regard for moral principles, explains the methods of more than Machiavellian wickedness by which needy kings may replenish their coffers^[29], and many instances of the lesson being well learned are on record. Official misdoings were as common in ancient as in modern times. The textbook writer, with the characteristic Hindu love for categories, explains that 'there are about forty ways of embezzlement,' which he enumerates with painstaking exactness. He sagely observes that 'just as it is impossible not to taste the honey or the poison that finds itself at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a Government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the king's revenue^[30].' The Kalinga Provincials’ Edict shows how Asoka was worried by negligent or disobedient officers, and expresses in singularly vivid language, evidently the actual words of the sovereign, his displeasure at the neglect of his commands. 'You must,' he declares, 'see to your duty and be told to remember:—"See to my commands, such and such are the instructions (if his Sacred Majesty." Fulfilment of these bears great fruit; non-fulfiment brings great calamity. By those who fail neither heaven nor the royal favour can be Won;' and so forth.

He essayed the impossible task of supervising personally the affairs of his wide dominions. 'I never feel satisfaction,' he exclaims, 'in my exertions and dispateh of business. For work I must for the welfare of all the folk; and of that, again, the root is energy, and the dispatch of business; for nothing is more essential than the welfare of all the folk.' Thus he toiled through a long life, priding himself especially on his accessibility to suitors at all hours and in all places, even the most inconvenient^[31]. Such accessibility, although inconsistent with really eflicient government, is always highly popular in India, where the people never can be persuaded that a ruler may arrange his time more profitably than by exposing himself to incessant interruption. The European critic feels that if Asoka had worked less hard he would have done better work, but must admit that in spite of his defects of method he was wonderfully successful in holding together for forty years an empire rarely exceeded in magnitude. Asoka's procedure was in accordance with the practice of his grandfather, who heard cases even while he was being massaged by his attendants, and with Chânakya's rule, which reads like an extract from the edicts:

'The King, therefore, shall personally attend to the business of gods, heretics, Brahmans learned in the Vedas, cattle, sacred places, minors, the aged, the afflicted, the helpless, and woman:—all this either in the order of enumeration or according to the urgent necessity of each such business^[32].’

The emperor, like most Oriental sovereigns, relied much upon espionage and the reports of news-writers and special agents employed by the Crown for the purpose of watching the executive officers, and reporting to head quarters everything that came to their knowledge. Even the courtesans were employed in this secret service, the nature of which is largely explained in Chânakya’s treatise. Kings in those days had reason to be suspicious. It is recorded of Chandragupta that he dared not sleep in the daytime, and was obliged, like a modern king of Burma, to change his bedroom every night^[33].

Asoka, in his fourteenth 'regnal year' (b.c. 256), added to the normal establishment a body of officers especially appointed to the duty of teaching and enforcing the Buddhist Law of Piety, or rules of dharma. The superior officials of this kind were termed Dharma-mahâmâtras, which may be rendered Censors, and the inferior were called Dhmrma-yuktas or Assistant Censors. The duties of the Censors, as defined in general terms in Rock Edicts V, XII, and Pillar Edict VII, must have included jurisdiction in cases of injury inflicted on animals contrary to the regulations, exhibitions of gross filial disrespect, and other breaches of the moral rules prescribed by authority. They were also instructed to redress cases of wrongful confinement or corporal punishment, and were empowered to grant remission of sentence when the offender was entitled to consideration by reason of advanced years, sudden calamity, or the burden of a large family. They shared with the Inspectors of Women the delicate duty of supervising female morals, the households of the royal family both at the capital and in the provincial towns being subject to their inspection. The practical working of these institutions must have presented many difficulties, and been open to much abuse.

The general severity of the government of Chandragupta is testified to by Justin, who declares that that prince, after his victory over the Macedonian garrisons, ‘forfeited by his tyranny all title to the name of liberator, for he oppressed with servitude the very people whom he had emancipated from foreign thraldom.' The Roman historian’s impression seems to be justified by the few details on record concerning the ferocity of the penal law. We have seen that evasion of taxes in certain cases was punishable with death, and that an intruder on the king's procession during a hunting expedition was liable to the same punishment. VVe are also told that the offence of causing the loss of a hand or an eye to an artisan was capital, the reason apparently being that skilled workmen were regarded as being specially devoted to the king’s service. Perjury and theft were ordinarily punishable by mutilation. Other instances of severity may be collected from Chânakya's treatise. In certain unspecified eases the eccentric penalty of shaving the offender's hair was inflicted. This punishment apparently was borrowed from Persia, and is one of several indications that the example of the court of the Great King influenced the customs of the Maurya sovereigns^[34]. Asoka, as already observed, seems to have maintained the stern methods of his predecessors, the only mitigation for which he claims credit being the grant of three days' respite between a capital sentence and execution. His practice of releasing convicts on the anniversary of his consecration was in accordanee with precedent^[35].

Megasthenes, from personal experience, was able to testify that the sternness of the government kept crime in check, and that in Chandragupta's capital, with a population of 400,000, the total of the thefts reported in any one day did not exceed two hundred drachmai, or about eight pounds sterling.

The two Kalinga Edicts deserve special study as authoritative statements of Asoka's personal ideal of good government, a benevolent paternal despotism. He instructs his offieers that they must induce the wilder tribes 'to trust me and grasp the truth that—"the King is to us even as a father; he loves us even as he loves himself; we are to the King even as his children."' The companion edict inculcates similar principles to he applied to the government of the more settled population.

The army, comprising, according to established rule, the four arms of infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots, was not a militia, but a permanent force, maintained at the royal cost, liberally paid, and equipped from the Government arsenals. The edicts, as might be expected, throw no light upon its organization in the reign of Asoka, and the information on record chiefly derived from Megasthenes, refers to the time of Chandragupta. The navy, as in Europe until recent times, was regarded as a branch of the army. No evidence as to the extent of the naval force maintained by the Mauryas is available, but it is known that the ancient Hindus did not shun the 'black water' as their descendants do, and that the States of Southern India maintained powerful navies for centuries. It is, therefore, probable that the Maurya ships were not restricted to the rivers, but ventured out to sea. Chânakya, indeed, expressly states that the head of the naval department should look after sea-going ships aswell as those concerned with inland navigation^[36].

The War Office, like the capital, was controlled by a commission of thirty members, divided into six Boards each containing five members, to which departments were assigned as follows:—

Board I: Admiralty, in co-operation with the Admiral;

Board II: Transport, commissariat, and army service, including the provision of drummers, grooms, mechanics, and grass-cutters;

Board III: Infantry;

Board IV: Cavalry;

Board V : War-chariots;

Board VI: Elephants.

The strength of the force maintained by ('handra-gupta has been stated in Chapter I. Asoka.'s peaceful policy probably required a smaller military establishment, but nothing on the subject is recorded. The heaviness of the enemy's 'casualties in the Kalinga war indicates that Asoka must have employed a large force to reduce the country.

The arms, when not in use, were stored in arsenals, and ranges of stables were provided for the horses and elephants. Chariots, when on the march, were drawn by oxen in order to spare the horses. Each war-chariot, which had a team of either two or four horses harnessed abreast, carried two fighting-men, besides the driver. The chariot when used as a state conveyance was drawn by four horses. 'The victory of kings,' it was said, 'depends mainly upon elephants^[37],' Which, consequently, were kept in vast hosts, numbering many thousands. Each war-elephant carried three fighting-men in addition to the driver.

The interesting details given by Arrian concerning the equipment of the infantry and cavalry may be quoted in full:—

'I proceed now,' he says, 'to describe the mode in which the Indians equip themselves for war, premising that it is not to be regarded as the only one in vogue. The foot-soldiers carry a how of equal length with the man who hears it. This they rest upon the ground, and pressing against it with their left foot thus discharge the arrow, having drawn the string far backwards; for the shaft they use is little short of being three yards long, and there is nothing which can resist an Indian archer's shot—neither shield nor breastplate, nor any stronger defence if such there be. In their left hand they carry bucklcrs of undressed ox-hide, which are not so broad as those who carry them, but are about as long. Some are equipped with javelins instead of bows, but all wear a sword, which is broad in the blade, but not longer than three cubits; and this, when they engage in close light (which they do with reluctance), they wield with both hands, to fetch down a lustier blow.

The horsemen are equipped with two lances like the lances called savnia, and with a shorter buckler than that carried by the foot-soldiers. But they do not put saddles on their horses, nor do they curb them with hits like the bits in use among the Greeks or Kelts, but they fit on round the extremity of the horse’s mouth a circular piece of stitched raw ox-hide studded with pricks of iron or brass pointing inwards, but not very sharp; if a man is rich he uses pricks made of ivory. Within the horse's mouth is put an iron prong like a skewer, to which the reins are attached. When the rider, then, 'pulls the reins, the prong controls the horse, and the pricks which are attached to this prong goad the mouth, so that it cannot but obey the reins^[38].'

The development during the ninety years of Maurya rule of a system of civil, military, and church government so complex and highly organized is matter for legitimate astonishment. The records of Alexander's invasion disclose the existence of a multitude of independent states governed either by Rajas or tribal oligarchies, constantly at war with one another and free from all control by a superior power. It is true that, even in those days, Magadha occupied the premier position, but the Nanda king of that state made no claim to be the Lord Paramount of India. The conception of an Indian Empire, extending from sea to sea, and embracing almost the whole of India and Afghanistan, was formed and carried into effect by Chandragupta and his minister in the brief space of twenty-four years. History can show few greater political achievements. Not only was the empire formed, but it was so thoroughly organized that the sovereign's commands emanating from Pâtaliputra were obeyed without demur on the banks of the Indus and the shores of the Arabian sea. The immense heritage thus created by the genius of the first emperor of India Was transmitted intact to his son and grandson, and all three monarchs were in a position to assert their equality with the leading Hellenistic princes of the age. The figure of Bindusâra, hidden in the darkness, eludes our view, and we can only assume that his capacity must have been equal to the task imposed upon him by his birth, because otherwise it would have been impossible for him to enlarge and pass on to his famous son the splendid dominion which Asoka ruled with so much distinction.

Dim though the picture be in many of its details,the figure of Asoka takes an honourable place in the gallery of the greatest kings known to history. In a sense we know him better than we know any other ancient monarch, because he speaks to us in his own words. It is impossible, I think, for any student to read the edicts with care, and not to hear the voice of the king himself. The abrupt transitions from the third to the first person, from oratio obliqua to oratio directa, which embarrass the translator, and produced on early interpreters the erroneous impression of clumsy composition, are of the deepest interest when regarded as devices for inserting in oflicial proclamations the very words of the sovereign. We can discern a man of strong will, unwearied application, and high aims, who spared no labour in the pursuit of his ideals, possessed the mental grasp capable of forming the vast conception of missionary enterprise in three continents, and was at the same time able to control the intricate affairs of Church and State in an empire which the most powerful sovereign might envy. His plan of committing to the faithful keeping of the rocks his code of moral duty was equally original and bold, and his intense desire that his measures should result in the 'long endurance' of the Good Law as taught in his ordinances has been fulfilled in no small measure by the preservation of some thirty-five separate documents to this day.

His government—a theoeracy without a God—concerned itself, like that of Charlemagne, equally with Church and State, and, so far as We can judge, attained no small success. The number, costliness, and magnitude of his buildings and monuments are enough in themselves to prove that the empire in which the erection of such works was possible must have been rich and tranquil.

We need not be surprised that the fabric collapsed after his death; the wonder rather is that it held together so long.

1. Not Ghazni (also spelt Ghaznîn and Ghazna), which was not founded until near the close of the ninth century. Zâbul, the ancient capital of Arachosia, stood on or near the Mihtar-i-Sulaimân range to the east of Ghaznî and the south of Kâbul. The ruins, although known to exist, have not been visited by any European (Raverty, Notes on Afghanistan, pp. 457, 506–10).
2. Beal, Buddhist Records, i. 57, 92, 125; Watters On Yuan Chuang, i. !29, 183, 237. For the name Nangrahâar or Naug-nahâr see Raverty, Notes on Afghanistan, p. 49.
3. Stein, transl. Râjatar, Bk. i. w. 101-7 and notes.
4. Oldfield, Sketches from Nipâl, ii. 246-8; Wright, History of Nepâl, p. 110; Sylvuin Lévi, Le Nepâl, i. 67; ii. 82. The photograph on p. 263 of tome i is a good representation of the southern Asoka stûpa at Pâtan, the antiquity of which is guaranteed by its form. See also Ind. Ant., xiii. 412.
5. Tamlûk is in the Midnapore District on the Rûpnarâyan river in lat. 22° 18’ N., long. 87° 56' E. See Imp. Gaz. (1908), s.v. Tamlûk; Fa-hien, Travels, transl. Legge, ch. xxxvii, p. 100; Hiuen Tsang, in Beal, Records, ii. 200; Watters, On Yuan Chwang, ii. 190. In Fa,-hien's time (A. D. 410) there were twenty-two Buddhist monasteries at Tâmralipti, which were reduced to about half the number in the seventh century.
6. Beal, ii. 199; Watters, ii. 187.
7. Beal, ii. 195; Watters, ii. 184.
8. Ep. Ind., viii. 36.
9. This is the position of the Jaṭinga-Râmeśvara hill. The Siddâpura and Brahmagiri recensions are close by.
10. Balfour, Cyclopaedia, s.v. Tuluva and Malabar; Imp. Gaz. (1908), s. v. Chandrugiri. Formerly I guessed that Tuluva might represent the Satiyaputra kingdom of RE. II, which I now identify with the Satyamangalam Tâlûk of Coimbatore.
11. Tchang, Synchmnismes Chinois (Chang-hai, 1905), pp. I 1 2-16.
12. Sarat Chandra Das, J. A. S. B., Part i (I 896), pp. 195-7; Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, pp. 233-7. The works used by Rockhill place the foundation of Khotan in 234 a. b. [487—234=b. c. 253], and the accession of Asoka. apparently 48 or 49 (30th year+ 19, age of Kustana) years earlier, in b.c. 301 or 302, assigning fifty-four years to his reign. The legends are discussed by Stein, Ancient Khotan (1907), pp. 156-66.
13. The minister's name is given as Kauṭalya, Kauṭilya, Châṇakya, or Vishṇugupta. Mr. R. Shamasastry is entitled to the credit of bringing to public notice for the first time a manuscript of the Arthaśâstra and an imperfect manuscript of a commentary by Bhaṭṭasvâmi on the same, which have been deposited by a pundit in the Mysore Government Oriental Library. Two more MSS. of the_work have been lent by Professor Jolly to the Münich State Library, and another appears to exist in the collection of the Sanskrit College at Calcutta (Hillebrandt, Ueber das Kauṭilîyaśâstra und Verwandtes, Breslau, 1908). Mr. Shamasastry has printed the text, which was discovered in 1904, as vol. xxxvii of the Bibliotheca Sanskrita of Mysore (1909). The same learned scholar, having published translations of parts of the book in various forms, produced a complete version in 1915 (Bangalore Government Press). That version, although obviously needing revision, is a most creditable performance, and has been of the utmost value to me. The difficulties confronting the translator of the work are formidable. A considerable literature is growing up round the subject, and years must elapse before a perfect version can be expected.
14. For changes in the rivers, see Cunningham, Archaeol. S. Rep, vol. viii, p. 6; vol. xi, p. 154. Many identifications, more or less convincing, will be found in Lieut.-Col. Waddell's tract entitled Discovery of the Exact Site of Asoka's Classic Capital of Pâtaliputra, &c., Calcutta, 1892; 2nd ed., 1903. This interesting work, although open to criticism, has added much to knowledge. A good deal of information is buried in an unpublished and rather crude report, of which I possess a proof, by the late Bâbû P. C. Mukharjî, whose drawings must be in the Calcutta Secretariat. The Greek and Roman notices will be found in Mr. McCrindle's works already cited.
15. Consular Officers in India. and Greece,' Ind. Ant., xxxiv (1905), p. 200; Newton, Essays on Art and Archaeology, pp. 104, 121.
16. ἀπὸ συσσήμου in Megasthenes, Fragm. xxxiv, mistranslated by McCrindle (Megasthenes, p. 87) as 'by public notice.' Σύσσηον is the abhijñânamudrâ of Châṇakya, Bk. ii, ch. 21.
17. Arthaśâstra, Bk. ii, ch. 21, 22.
18. Bk. ii. ch. 27.
19. Bk. i. ch. 21.
20. For the Maurya court see Q. Curtius, History of Alexander the Great, Bk. viii, ch. 9', transl. McCrindle (Invasiobn of India by Alexander the Great, p. 188); and Aelian, On the Peculiarities of Animals, Bk. xiii, ch. 18, 22; Bk. xv, ch. 15, transl. McCrindle (Ancient India, pp. 141-5). Trotting oxen are used largely to this day, especially in Western and Southern India but I have never heard of the racing breed except in Ceylon and in the pages of Megasthenes. I fully believe his statement.
21. Strabo (Bk. xv,’ ch. 11 ; McCrindle, Anc. India, p. 16) gives the length of the royal road as 10,000 stadia, or about 1150 English miles, on the authority of Megasthenes and Eraotesthenes, who obtained the figures from an official record, and as 9,000 according to another authority. 1 stadium 202 1/4 yards; 10 stadia=2022 1/2 yards. The mean length of the Mughal kôs as measured between the existing pillars (mînârs) is 4558 yards, but a shorter kôs is used in the Panjâb. I do not think it possible to accept the proposed interpretation of aḍhakosikya in Pillar Edict VII, sec. 5, as meaning 'at intervals of eight kôs.' Aḍha in the language of the edicts does not apparently mean 'eight.' The direct distance between Pâṭaliputia and Taxila as measured on the map is about 950 miles.
22. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (1892), p. 64.
23. The word yukta in this sense occurs several times in the edicts, and frequently in the Arthaśâsta.
24. The Yavana Râjâ. Tushaspha in the Girnâr inscription of Rudrâdaman (Ep. Ind., viii. 36).
25. Taxila and Ujjain in Kalinga. Provincials' Edict; Tosali in KalingaBordc1-ers‘ Edict, Dhauli version; Suvargṇgiri in Minor Rock Edict I, Brahuiagiri version.
26. Tosali must have been at ornear Dhauli in the Purî District, Orissa, and, perhaps, was the Dosara. of Ptolemy. The position of Suvarṇagiri is not known. The name means Golden Hill, and the fact that the inscription discovered in 1915 at Maskiin the Nizam’s Dominions was incised on a rock close to ancient goldmines suggests that Suvarṇagiri was in the Raichûr District, not very far from Maski. It is possible that the site of Suvaṇgiri may be found.
27. Defined in Arthaśâstra, Bk. ii, ch. 10.
28. Arthaśâstra, Bk. ii, ch. 24.
29. Ind. Ant., xxxiv. 115-19.
30. Arthaśâstra, Bk. ii, ch. 8, 9.
31. Rock Edict VI.
32. Arthaśâstra, Bk. i. ch. 19, 'The Duties of a King.'
33. Strabo, I, 53-56 in McCrindle, Megasthenes, p. 71; Arthaśâstra, Bk. i, ch. 11, &c.; the King’s Agents (pulisâni) in Pillar Edict III, with whom compare the missi dominci of Charlemagne; Mudrâ-râkshasa, Act ii. Charlemagne's missi were 'officials commissioned to traverse each some part of his dominions, reporting on and redressing the evils they found' (Bryce, Holy Roman Empire (1892), p. 68). Their functions must have been similar to those of Asoka's 'men' or Agents.
34. Ind. Ant. xxxiv (1965), p. 202.
35. Arthaśâtra, Bk. ii, ch. 36 (Ind. Ant., xxxiv. 52).
36. Samudra-samyâna, Arthaśâstra, Bk. ii, ch. 28.
37. Arthraśâtra, Bk. ii, ch. 2. The author lays down that 'whoever kills an elephant shall be put to death.'
38. Arrian, Indika, ch. xvi, transl. McCrindle (Megasthenes, p. 220). A nearly life-sized figure of an infantry soldier armed as described by Megasthenes is reproduced by Cunningham, Stûpa of Bharhut, Pl. xxxii, I. For shapes of Indian arms at the beginning of the Christian era, see Cunningham, Bhilsa Tapes, p. 217, P1. xxxiii; Maisey, Sânchi, Pl. xxxv, xxxvi. A long list of weapons and military engines is given in Arthaśâstra, Bk. ii, ch. 18. Tennent (Ceylon, 2nd ed., i. 499) compares the Veddah mode of holding the bow with the foot, but it is quite different, the bow not being rested on the ground.