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AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
Mookerjit takes the Yuktas as a general term for all Government employees and cites the authority of the Arthaśāstra,” which connects the Yuktas, the Upayuktas and their subordinates (i. e. Purushas) with all Departments of the Government service in connection with the State funds which they sometimes misappropriated. Bhandarkar takes them as District Treasury Officers with powers to spend money where it was likely to lead to an increase of revenue. Manu“ describes them as the custodians of lost property when recovered.
If the Yuktas are treated to signify all Government employees, they become identical with the Purushas of PE I and Amātyas of the Arthaśāstra. But in RE III, they are accorded a prominent official position, probably next to those of the Rajjukas and the Prādesikas. Dr. Thomas“ suggests that the Yuktas meant the subordinate secretariat staff which accompanied the Rajjukas and the Prādesikas on tours. Hultzsch, however, opines that they were the secretaries employed for codifying royal orders in the office of the Mahā nātras. The concluding statement in RE III gives air to this view, where the Yuktas were required to have clear instructions from either the Parishad or the Pulisā (Yeraguddi version) as to the nature of formulation or drafting of the Royal Order, determining, no doubt, the tour programme of the Rajjukas and the Prādesikas.
PULISAS–The Pulisas or agents are apparently identical with the Purushas or Rāja-purushas of the Arthaśāstra. Hultzsch prefers to equate them with the
1. A goka, p. 133 2. II, 5; Cf. also Mbh, IT, 5, 72. 3. Asoka, p. 57. 4. VIII, 31. 5. JRAS, 1914, p. 391 6, Trang. Shamsastri, pp. 59 & 75.
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