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POLITY AND ADMINISTRATION coroddharanika is mentioned after the setthi and before the mahabalādhikṣta ( senapati ), 1 denoting his status to have been higher than that of the setthi ( apparently from the dandapaśika also ) and inferior to that of the senāpati. The dan likas2 very frequently mentioned in the text were perhaps the senior police officers in charge of surveillance. The royal guards and policemen, termed as rāya-purisas,' were responsible for proper maintenance of law and order in the State. The political and social conditions being quite unsafe, most of the towns and villages were in a constant danger of an attack from the non-Aryan thieves and bandits ( bodhita ) who kidnapped the people and captured their property. The services of the army must have been requisitioned by police to solve such acute problems. Mention of the arrival of the king's army ( klamdhavāra ) in order to threaten the Mleccha banditse in the text reveals the same fact. Yuan Chwang informs us that “soldiers were requisitioned to perform police functions”.? System of Espionage
A regular system of espionage was organized by the Military as well as the Police Department for the protection and security of the State. The sūcakas or the spies along with the că dagas reported to the king about the general activities of the people and monks. Sücakas were also termed as cara. No details about these spies are given in the text, but from Somadeva we learn that the spies or secret agents could be broadly divided into two groups--one responsible for internal
1. NC. 2, p. 234. 2. NC. 1, pp. 66, 86; NC. 3, p. 262; NC. 4, p. 234. 3. According to Fleet, dandika (Lit. a chastiser, a punisher ) may de
note either a judicial functionary from danda in the sense of a fine, or a police-officer from the same word in the sense of , rod (or punish
ment )--CII. III, p. 218, note 4. 4. NC. 3. pp. 200-1; also Samarāiccakahā, p. 271. 5. NC. 2, p. 419; NC. 3, p. 163. 6. "area" foi, ar fts11 af 1557–“FET ETTI glat” f1_NC. 2, p. 81. 7. Beal, op. cit, 1, p. 87. 8. quire al tro fola-NC. 3, p. 105; also Brh VI. 2, p. 568. 9. NC. 3, p. 113; Nitivā., p. 172.
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