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ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS
463
by many Mayaharayas when she was taken from the forest to the palace of king Vajrajangha (96.2). A Mayaharaya is said to be introducing a bride-princess to the candidates contesting the 'svayamvara' (106.7). And Mayaharayas inform Rama of the public censure of Sită (93.16). Thus they appear to be generally associated with the members of the harem. The Nisithacurni explains him as an executive officer of the harem. He took the ladies of the harem to the king, told them stories after their menstruation bath; pacified their anger and reported the of cause their anger to the (4.2.56) king'. Vatsyayana refers Mahattarika to the king with taking message to as from presents the queens". Thus Mahattara or Mayaharaya seems to be the officer of harem. But in the PCV they are also told to be the heads of the different departments of Indra, the celestial lord (102.155). At 102.49 the Mayaharaya is Thus here. referred to be as the head of the organisation of nuns.
various
they seem to be the heads of various departments".
envoy.
Dūta:-He was an ambassador (14.19) or The PCV does not inform that the offices of embassy were premanently established in the capitals of foreign states. It reveals that the Dūtas worked as messengers who carrried the orders of their king to other kings and returned after accomplishing their work (6.15; 8.67; 37.17; 49.1, 29; 65.9; 104.10). Kautilya while explaning the duties of an ambassador states that he was a diplomatic officer sent to the court of a foreign power to safeguard his master's interest and to gather all the requisite information of the strength and weakness of a foe and transmit it to his Government (Kautilya, 1.16).
The PCV mentions that a Duta should be clever, quick-witted, modest, strong, and well-versed in statecraft and other sastras (39.39; 65.10).
It was the ethics of the polity that an envoy was never killed by the foe king (8.82; 9.35) because he was merely a servant (8.83) or the carrier of the message of his master or the bespeaker of the words of his master (8.82). But he is even then mentioned to have suffered insults in the courts of enemy kings (9.36; 53.129; 65.34). Sometimes he was reproached and dragged out of the court (8.84). Duta who insulted king was tied down with chains (53.142) and humiliated.
1. Vide LAI, p, 56.
2. See Studies in the Kamasutra, p. 109.
3.
In the VGA (p. 263), they are explained
as District-council member. The
Uttaradhyayana Tikā, 3. p. 57; 9. p. 142a explains them as village officers (Vide LAI; p.83).
