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282 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
along with the Mantrins when Ātyayika kārya, i.e., works of emergency had to be transacted. The king was to be guided by the decision of the majority (Bhūyishthāh). They also attended the king at the time of the reception of envoys. From the passage "Mantriparishadam dvādaśāmātyān kurvita”_"the Council of Ministers should consist of twelve Amātyas,” it appears that the Parishad used to be recruited from all kinds of Amātyas (not necessarily from Mantrins alone). From Kautilya's denunciation of a king with a "Kshudraparishad," a small council, his rejection of the views of the Mānavas, Bārhaspatyas and the Aušanasas, his preference for an "Akshudra-parishad," a council that is not small, and his reference to Indra's Parishad of a thousand ķishis, it may be presumed that he wanted to provide for the need of a growing empire. Such an empire was undoubtedly that of Chandragupta who may have been prevailed upon by his advisers to constitute a fairly big assembly.
Besides the Mantrins and the Mantriparishad, there was another class of Amātyas who filled the great administrative and judicial appointments. The Kauțiliya Arthaśāstra says that the "dharmopadhāśuddha" Amatyas, officers purified by religious test, should be employed in
1 Arthāśāstra, 29. Cf. Mbh, iv. 30, 8. Asoka's R. E. VI. 2 Arthaśāstra, p. 45. 3 P. 259.
4 The Divyāvadāna (p. 372) refers to the five hundred councillors (Pañchāmātyaśatāni) of Bindusāra, son and successor of Chandragupta Maurya. Patañjali refers to Chandragupta Sabha. But we have no indication as to its constitution.
5 Cf. the Karma-Sachivas of the Junagadh Rock Inscription of Rudradāman 1.
6 P. 17. Cf. McCrindle, Megasthenes and Arrian, 1926, 41, 42.
