Life in Ancient India as Depicted in Jain Canons

Author(s): Jagdishchandra Jain
Publisher: New Book Company

Page 61

CENTRAL ADMINITRATION
59
THE ROYAL COUNCIL AND THE MINISTER
The parishad or Council is an important limb of the central organisation and its origin can be traced to a very early period. The Jain texts describe five kinds of Council of a king : püranti, chattanti, buddhi, mantri and rahassiya. It is said that when the king went on tour, all the officials attended on him till he returned ; this council of officials was called pürantr. The members of the chattanz council had the privilege of holding the umbrella over the king and were permitted to go up to the outer assembly hall The buddh parisat consisted of members who were well-verscd in gcncral customs (loka), the Vedas and the scriptures (samaya). Various rumours and off-hand remarks current among the people were brought to their notice The fourth council was the council of ministers. They were well-versed in politics (rāyasattha), were born in the family with no royal connections (atakkuliya), were sincere, old in age and bold; the king counsellcd with them in a secrct place. The last council was known as rahasstyd. The members of this council pacified the angry qucen, carried the news of the dates of the purificatory bath after monthly course of various queens; they also informed the king the names of his daughters who were eligible for marriage. They also informed him of the love-affairs of the queen and also talked with the king in private on various topics pertaining to his sexual life. The mantrı parisat was an organised council of ministers who were concerned with the political affairs of the realm. It is said that a minister should always think of his country, city and the master and he should be efficient in law and administration. A minister or amatya had power to punish even a king, and we comc across instances, although rare, when the ministers dismissed a king and appointed another king in his place. We are told that king Jiyasattu of Vasantapura loved his qucen Sukumālıyā excessivcly and as a result of this he neglected the affairs of the state Onc day the ministers assembled togсther and after banishing the king and the queen put the prince on the throne & In order to protcct the realm from internal disturbances and the invasion of the enemy, a ministci is said to have employed a number of spies such as sūcakas, anusūcakas, pralistīcakas and saivasūcakas, who supplicct him all sorts of secret information The sūcakas made friendship with thc harcm officers and found out intcinal secrets of the harcm; the anus ūcakas were employed to detect the foreign spies in the city; the pralisūcakas sat on the city gate apparently doing some menial work; the sarvasücakas gathered information through their assistants and reported it to the amdlya Thicse spics were both males and females and they worked in frontier territories, their own country, cities and the royal harem. The ministers were
8 Brh Bha Pi , 378 383
1 Vya Bhi , 1, pp 129f 8 Ava cū, p 534 , for similar references see Saccamkıra Jataka (I, No 73), P 328"
• Vya. Bha, 1, p 130a f According to the Malabhūrata (Santi p LXviir, 8-12, the omployment and direction of spics 19 one of the prime duties of the king They are to be set in uities provinces, and the territoies of feudatories, also see Arthasástra, pp. 17-PR 18.