Administration and Empire
The Empire was split into four provinces, with Pataliputra as the imperial capital. According to Ashokan edicts, the four provincial capitals are Tosali (in the east), Ujjain (in the west), Suvarnagiri (in the south), and Taxila (in the north). The head of the provincial government was the Kumara (royal prince), who controlled the provinces as the King’s envoy. Mahamatyas and the council of ministers helped the Kumara. The Emperor and his Mantriparishad mirrored this organizational system at the imperial level (Council of Ministers). Historians believe that the Empire was organized as outlined by Chanakya in the Arthashastra: a complex civil service overseeing everything from local sanitation to international trade. A centralized administration was in place. The King was the supreme head of the State. He exercised legislative, executive, and judicial authority. The King traveled extensively throughout the Empire, which was a difficult task considering the extent of the Empire.
Further, he believed in Paternal Kingship, which he practiced dearly. His maxim ‘all men are my children’ led to a society built on peace and harmony. Despite the emperor being the nucleus of the State, Ashok’s edict mentions frequent discussions between the throne and ministers.
Two key offices controlled by the throne were the treasurer and the chief collector. The Sannidhata was the primary custodian of the State treasury. Because the revenue was also received in kind, the latter was also responsible for providing storage facilities. Samaharta was the chief collector of revenue. He was accompanied by clerks who kept records of tax collected. The administration was further divided into departments consisting of the superintendent and officers. The superintendents officiate various departments such as gold and goldsmiths, and of the storehouse, commerce, forest produce, the armory, weights and measures, tolls, weaving, agriculture, liquor, slaughterhouses, prostitutes, ships, cows, horses, elephants, chariots, infantry, passports and the city.
The Arthashastra provides us with a range of predicted salaries ranging from 48,000 panas to 120 panas per year, varying from person to person. The chief minister, the purohit, and the army commanders received 48,000 panas, and the artisans received 120 panas. The salary ratio could be 1:96 between a clerk and chief minister or a soldier and the commander. Upper levels of bureaucracy were well-paid compared to the lower-category clerks or foot soldiers. One-quarter of the revenue was reserved for this. The value of the panas is not ascertained, but a comparison could be made to find the value. A pair of oxen was sold for 24 panas, and a slave was brought for 100 panas.
As specified by Ashoka in his edicts, public works included constructing and maintaining roads, wells, and rest houses, planting orchards, irrigation projects such as the Sudarshana Lake, the care of the army, and the operation of mines. The Arthashastra mentions a mine superintendent called akaradhyaksa, whose primary job was to find new mines and reopen old ones. Mining salt, like mining metals, was a State monopoly. The significance of various metals not only for currency minting but also for weapon manufacturing must be considered.
The administration of such a vast territory took a lot of work, considering the economic and cultural diversity. The Arthashastra promoted and practiced a centralized system where the King was the ultimate supreme. This was possible in a smaller area like Magadha. The administration adjusted to the socio-economic patterns and differentiations to meet these challenges. Three administration alternatives were devised to meet these challenges and maintain proper revenue collection and redistribution.
At the core was the example of Magadha; being a metropolitan, it was functioning well as State. Similarly, the Ganges plain was developed as a state. These areas were significant due to the Ashoka Edicts found here, possibly because these areas were a perfect example of Mauryan Governance. On another thought, the finding of these pillars may be due to river connectivity to these parts. It would have been an interesting coincidence if this was the area of maximum centralized administration which functioned more closely to the Kautilyan system than elsewhere.
The Metropolitan State was the model of the Empire, maintaining control over income and redistribution. The State extended its dominance by conquering sound agriculture output and commercial viability areas. Such areas could be regarded as core areas, scattered throughout the subcontinent and constituting a second category distinct from the metropolitan State.
The core areas were under the administration of the local governors and officials. These areas were brought under the ambit of force. The State was thrust upon them; these areas accommodated themselves to the new system, being incorporated into the state system. The Empire would attempt to restructure these areas’ economies to bring uniformity. The core areas became necessary to place installation for the Ashokan edicts. Such edicts were found In Gandhara, the Raichur doab, and southern Karnataka, Kalinga, and Saurashtra. These areas had strategic importance, especially Gandhara, the gateway to Hellenistic kingdoms of west Asia and were the center for commercial activities.
On the other hand, areas of southern Karnataka were prominent for gold mining. Suvarnagiri, as the name suggests, was a Mauryan administrative center due to the availability of gold in the nearby areas. Apart from the availability of Gold in Karnataka, copper, and iron was mined from Rajasthan and south Bihar. Some core areas would have included the peoples mentioned in the edicts, such as the Kambojas, Yonas, Bhojas, Pitinikas, and Andhras, all located in the imperial domain.
The third form was the areas that were in the periphery. These areas were limited in the settlement but full of natural resources. This may have been the reason for their inclusion in the Empire. There was no development of economic structure here, but the administration attempted to extract the resources available here. These areas were controlled by the fiat than by direct conquest. These resources were timber, elephants, and precious metals. More than the Mauryan administration, people dwelling in these forests could extract these resources more effectively. Mauryan administration had a contract with them. These were referred to as forest dwellers in the Ashokan edicts.
There is a reference to forest dwellers cooperating and revolting against the Empire and its officials. They were threatened by the limitless encroachments into their territory. These were not always by the army or administration. There were constant efforts from grazers and hermits to lock them out of their space. For them, they were alien and invasive. The outsider’s norms were not in line with the forest dwellers. The outsiders often considered the ways of the forest dwellers strange and unsettling, which gave rise to many mythological demons of the forest, which in turn gave rise to conflicts.
The megalithic settlements, cultivating rice using iron artifacts and elaborate burials, were more complex than the forest dwellers who coexisted with them. There was striking evidence of Mauryan presence in the megalithic remains, but Ashoka inscriptions were found in these areas, pointing us toward the Mauryan administration. Local people were tapped in to cultivate the resources. These were done with little infrastructure. The presence of Ashokan edicts in the gold-bearing region of Karnataka suggests the presence of the Mauryan administration, but gold was rare in the Mauryan artifacts.
This suggests that Mauryan administration and economy be viewed in terms of the metropolitan State, together with core and peripheral areas, should be distinct from what has been described as the segmentary State. The Mauryan system suggested here had little to do with ritual status, ritual hierarchies, or the separation of the political from the ritual. Mauryan control over administration and revenue collection did not vary; instead, this control had variant mechanisms and forms. Thus, the chiefs among the forest dwellers collected the forest produce demanded by the Mauryan administration and were the channels by which the administration obtained this tax in kind.
The edicts confirmed the uniformity of administration and acknowledged the presence of diverse peoples. The variants suggested here accommodated this diversity without giving away the ideology of the imperial administration or recognizing that the metropolitan State was at the center of the Mauryan system. This was proven by the King’s Statement for the forest dwellers, which was conciliatory and threat driven too, that the State can be severe. The Arthashastra also warns that the forest dwellers, although marginal at some levels, can be dangerous when kings campaign in the area and should be treated with suspicion and, if possible, appeased. They are political entities and have to be treated mindfully. The coexistence of such diversity required a focus and diverse ways of administrative handling. Acknowledging diversity requires more than a single pattern of administration, and these patterns have to be flexible since the diversities were to be found in various parts of the Empire.
Apart from the metropolitan, which was directly under the ambit of the Empire, other provinces were governed by governors under the prince or members of the royal family. Each section had a governor or viceroy, who was occasionally a prince of royal lineage. When appointed as viceroys, the princes were referred to as Kumar Mahamatras, while the remainder of the representatives were simply referred to as Mahamatras. Provinces were subdivided into mandals (commissionaires), with Pradeshta as the head. Each mandals were administered by Pradeshika, Yukta, and Rajukka. Pradeshika was senior, and Rajukka was subordinate. Yukta was subordinate to both of them. Pradeshika toured every five years for an audit of the land. There were specially appointed judicial officers – Rajukas – both in the cities and rural areas, and they combined their judicial functions with assessment work. Among the duties of the yukta was recording information from varied sources. Fines served as punishments in most cases. But certain crimes were considered too serious to be punished by penalties alone, and Ashoka retained capital punishment despite his propagation of non-violence. Centers of provincial administration were located at Taxila, Ujjain, Dhauli, Suvarnagiri, and possibly Girnar. Governors administering smaller units were selected from among the local people, such as the Iranian Tushaspa associated with Saurashtra or Romo- dote at Taxila.
As per Arthashastra, each province was divided into districts and further divided into villages. Villages were the smallest unit of administration. It was managed by an official called Gramika. In addition, village elders (gram-vriddhas) are frequently referenced in the Arthashastra. They played a role in advising and supporting the people in general and assisting government authorities in resolving minor issues in the village. However, the system placed by the center would remain unchanged. Sthanikas and Gopas, with their own staff of officials, handled income and general administration in the districts. The Gopa was in charge of five to ten villages, where he oversaw boundary maintenance, documented gifts, sales, and mortgages, and kept an accurate census of the people and their material resources. The Sthanika had similar duties in the district. Gopa functioned under him. The headman, the most commonly mentioned individual in the village community, served in some official role and was accountable to the accountant and the tax collector. Aahar, which is usually the term coined district administration. This was interesting because the word is derived from eating.
The urban administration had its own officers responsible for law and order and the city’s cleanliness. According to Megasthenes, Patliputra was governed by a municipal commission of thirty officials divided into six boards of five people each. Each committee was responsible for handling the affairs of one particular department. Like Industrial arts, the welfare of tourists and visitors, the Collection of birth and death details, trade and commerce, the sale of goods, and finally Collection of tax on goods sold. To control the tax, specific supervision was maintained on producing and exchanging goods in urban centers.
The administration was quite influential on paper, but whether it was similar in the field is still a question. Emphasis was the Collection of data. This kind of administration required a lot of giving and taking of information and data, but unfortunately, such data could not survive the time. Significant decisions were indeed taken by Pataliputra, but lesser decisions were handled at the local level.
Kautilya placed a high value on the espionage system, designed to improve the State’s growth, efficiency, and stability. The head of the spies was Mahamatyapasharpa. There were primarily two categories of spies: Sanstha was stationed in one location, and Sanchara- used to roam the Empire. They were placed as householder workers, prostitutes, merchants, and students. Ashoka maintained an eye on his Empire through the information he received from his spies. It helped him to gauge public opinion.