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POLITY AND ADMINISTRATION
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the contemporary practice,»l the same may be evidently stated about the NC. as well. It is, however, clear that even though not as a member of the ministry, the purohita exercised a deep moral influence over the State and the king.
The war-minister must have occupied an important place in the ministry of the king, although he has not been regularly mentioned along with the other members of the royal council in the text. It is interesting to note that Somadeva is also opposed to the inclusion of commander-in-chief in the political council of the king, for he thinks that “war mongering leaders have a natural hankering after war”.3 Various references in the text, however, definitely show him to have been a very influential member who was to be consulted in all the important matters of the State. He has been variously called as senāpati, senādhipa and mahabaladhikyta. The last mentioned term has been more frequently used in the text. The inscriptions of the Guptas' and the Maitrakass also reveal the mahābaladhikyta to have been a common denomination of the commander-in-chief during this period.
The other members of the council were the setthio and the satthaváhalo who acquired a high social and political status because of their economic prosperity and assistance to the State. Setthi was a prominent citizen, the head of a mercantile guild, a merchant or a banker, and he was entrusted
1. Altekar, op. cit., p. 121. 2. NO. 1, p. 164; NC. 4, p. 281. 3. शस्त्राधिकारिणो न मंत्राधिकारिणः स्युः । शस्त्रोपजीविनां कलहमन्तरेण भक्तमपि भुक्त
a zifaNitivā., pp. 136-37. 4. vag Fortrag 31455fT: 7 7 Heathend Tel:-NC. 2, p. 234. 5. NC. 2, p. 179; NC. 3, p. 203; Harşacarita, p. 212; also all. III, pp.
167, 168, 243, 249. 6. NC. 2, pp. 183, 234. 7. EI. X. 71; also CII. III, p. 210, note 2. 8. The Majhagawam Copper-plate Inscription of Mahārāja Hastin
(A. D. 510-11 CII. III, No. 331, p. 109, text p. 108, also p. 129,
text p. 128. 9. NC. 2, p. 449. 10. Ibid.
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