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JUNE, 1915 ]
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
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Darrow and technical business of keeping the accounts of the incomings and outgoings of the royal treasury. On the Pradhâni devolved the difficult and important duties of determining the sources of revenue, securing the proper incidence of taxation, and organizing the machinery for its collection; while the duties of the Kaņakkan were confined to the narrow task of checking accounts and maintaining the balance-sheet. The one had necessarily to be a statesman, soquainted with the social and economic conditions of the country, the movement of prices, the nature of the season, the character of the harvest, and the enduring power of the people. The other was merely a mathematician, skilful in the manipulation of figures and the maintenance of statistics.
The Sthánapati was a highly important officer, and had the charge of foreign affairs. As a rule he stayed in the capital, but on emergencies he used to lead any embassy to foreign courts. The qualifications of the Sthânapati were indeed numerous. He had to be a careful observer, & fine speaker, a skilful diplomatist, a student of customs and etiquette, a man of polished behaviour and enticing personality. He had, under his control, an army of spies and agents, detective officers and confidential reporters, who communicated matters of political, military or other significance, transpiring in the courts or camps of foreign kings, of the viceroys and governors, and of the Polygars and vassal chiefs. It was through the spies that the king became acquainted with events of his kingdom, and the regular reports of the officers played a less important part than the communications of these secret agents. It was & system, of course, hardly conducive to that strict confidence which should exist between the king and his deputies or vassals. An atmosphere of distrust and suspicion thus pervaded the whole administration, and while it was successful in keeping the timid in the paths of honesty and duty, it rightly wounded the self-respect, and excited the displeasure, of many an honest servant of the king. But a despotism without an extensive system of espionage is, as the world's history shows, an impossible phenomenon.
The kingdom was divided, for administrative purposes, into provinces which were ruled by governors appointed by the Karta. It is difficult to say whether the governors held their offices for life or for a period. Evidently there was no rule on the subject and the duration of a governor's tenure of power depended on the Karta's will. At any rate no governor, even though he might have been governor for life, seems to bevo been able to legally transfer his authority to his descendants, though the hercditary principle was not without its influence. The Governor was also the commander-in-chief of the Province or Simai, thus combining in his hands both civil and military powers. The importance, area and resources of the provinces were not the same throughout the kingdom. Some had by their situation, their riches or their population, a special importance, and had rulers, in consequence, who were invested with special dignity and rank. The exact number of the Provinces or Simais into which the kingdom was divided is not known, but it is certain that there were at least seven Ef them. These were Satyamaigalam in the northern frontier, Boimbatore, Dirigul, Trichinopoly or rather Mapapparai, Madura, Srivilliputtûr or Nadumandalam, and Tinnevelly. Of these, Madura and Trichinnopoly were the nominal and real capitals of the kingdom and seem to have been under the direct administration of the king, guided by an officer named Sarvadhikari. Of the other provinces the governors of the turbulent district of Tinnevelly and the frontier district of Satyamangalam seem to have occupied a comparatively high rank. Just as a modern province is divided, for the sake of efficient administration into districts, taluks
