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522 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
to.
us
kanaka (gold), rajata (silver), vajra (diamond), vaiduryaratna (beryl), etc. Rulers less scrupulous than the Mahakshatrapa doubtless oppressed the people with and benevolences arbitrary imposts, forced labour (kara-vishti-pranaya-kriya-bhih). Besides the Bhanḍāgāra, whose existence is implied by Lüders' Ins., No. 1141, we have reference the storehouse, Koshṭhāgāra,1 which is described in Book II, Chapter 15, of the Kauṭiliya Arthasastra. The inscriptions afford glimpses of the way in which the revenue was spent. The attempts to provide for "paniya" or drinkable water are specially noteworthy. The Junagadh Inscription tells us how "by the expenditure of a vast amount of money from his own treasury" a great Scythian ruler and his amatya restored the Sudarsana lake. References to the construction or repair of tanks, wells, lakes and other reservoirs of water, Pushkarinis, udapānas, hradas or tadagas, are fairly common. Lüders' Ins., No. 1137, makes mention of makers of hydraulic engines (Audayantrika), while another epigraph refers to a royal official called Paniyagharika or superintendent of waterhouses. Inscription No. 1186, after recording the gift of a taḍuga (pond), a naga (statue of a serpent deity) and a vihara (pleasance, monastery), refers to the Amatya Skandasvati who was the official Karmantika (superintendent of works), an designation known to the Arthasastra. 3
In the department of Foreign Affairs we have the Dūta (envoy or messenger), but we do not as yet hear of dignitaries like the Samdhivigrahika (officer in charge
In Ins. No. 937.
1
2 Lüders, 1279.
3
Bk. I, Ch. 12.
