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OVERSEERS AND SPIES
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ment." 1 Strabo calls this class of men the Ephori or Inspectors. "They are," says he, "intrusted with the superintendence of all that is going on, and it is their duty to report privately to the king... The best and the most faithful persons are appointed to the office of Inspectors." 2 The Overseer of Arrian and the Inspector of Strabo may correspond to the Rashtriya of the Junagadh Inscription or to the Pradeshtri or the GudhaPurushas (secret emissaries) of the Arthasustra. Pradeshtri may be derived from Pradiś which means 'to point,' 'to communicate.' 3
Strabo speaks of different classes of Inspectors. He tells us that the City Inspectors employed as their coadjutors the city courtesans ; and the Inspectors of the Camp, the women who followed it. The employment of women of easy virtue as spies is also alluded to by the Kauṭiliya Artha sastra. According to that work there were two groups of spies, viz. :
1. Samsthaḥ, or stationary spies, consisting of secret agents styled Kāpaṭika, Udāsthita, Grihapatika, Vaidehaka and Tapasa, i.e., fraudulent disciples, recluses, householders, merchants and ascetics.
2. Sanchārāḥ or wandering spies, including emissaries termed Satri, Tikshna and Rashada, i.e., class-mates, firebrands and poisoners and certain women described as Bhikshukis (mendicants), Parivrājikās (wandering nuns), Mundas (shavelings) and Vrishalis. It is to the last class, viz., the Vrishalis that Strabo evidently refers. We
1 Chinnock, Arrian, p. 413.
2 H. and F., Strabo. III, p. 103.
3 Cf., Thomas, JRAS., 1915, p. 97.
4 Cf. Lüders, Ins. No. 1200.
5
A Vṛishali is taken to mean á ganika or courtesan by the author of the Bhagavadajjukiyam (p. 94).
