Mauryan Administration System (Mauryan

Government)
The Mauryan administration system was efficient and monarchical. The king of the Mauryan
government was the head of the Mauryan empire administration. The Mauryan Empire had the
privileged of having successful administrators such as Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusara Maurya
and Ashoka the Great. The administration of Mauryan Empire was decentralized and the
administrative powers were divided into convenient administrative units. Though the units were
administered on common system, they were under a rigid central control.

The Mauryan administration can be discussed under the following headings:

● Mauryan Centralized Administration system (Mauryan centralized government)

● Mauryan Provincial Administration system (Mauryan provincial government)
● Mauryan Administration Revenue System
● Mauryan Judicial System
● Mauryan Municipal Administration System
● Mauryan Military Administration
● Mauryan Administration of Ashoka the Great

Mauryan Centralized Administration

The administration of Mauryan dynasty was controlled by the King. The king was the supreme
and sovereign authority of the Mauryan Empire Administration. He had the supreme executive,
legislative and judicial power and functions in the government.

As the head of the executive, the Mauryan king maintained social order by punishing the guilty.
He was responsible for the safety and security of his kingdom. It was his duty to protect the life
and property of his subjects. He was to collect report from the spies. He had to plan different
campaigns and movements.

He laid down the general lines of policy to be followed by his subordinate officials. He
appointed ministers and other officers of the royal administration.

The Mauryan king was the head of the judicial department. It was his duty to ensure justice to
the people and redress their grievances. The Mauryan Empire was vast and this vastness
debarred the king from personally disposing of all the cases. But he was the final court of appeal
and issued ready judgment. The Mauryan kings remained whole day in the court to hear appeals
from the people and in this course he even never cared for these personal amenities. King
Ashoka made many reforms in the judicial system of the Mauryan Empire.

The king had the sovereign power of law making and also the power and right to supersede
usage and equity.
In addition to all these the king was the supreme commander of the army and head of the
Military administration of Mauryan Empire. The King was also the ultimate authority of the
bureaucracy. The king also controlled the Mauryan empire revenue system.

It is true that the Mauryan kings enjoyed huge power. But, still there were several limits upon
the royal authority. We can summaries these limitations in the following manner:

● Firstly, Mauryan Empire before Ashoka was essentially a Hindu State. According to the
Hindu concept, the Supreme Sovereign of the State was Dharma or law and the king was
merely its guardian.
● Secondly, the Mauryan king never dared to defy the ancient laws and usage.
● Thirdly, the king was aided and advised by a Mantri Parishad. In ordinary times he could
ignore the advice of his ministers. But in times of emergency it was obligatory on him to
hear the individual and collective advice of his ministers.
● Fourthly, the Brahmins had great influence over the king and even the later dared not to
disobey them. Instead he always had to look for their support.
● Fifthly, as the powers of the Mauryan government was was decentralized in nature, the
provincial governor and provincial ministers had right to be consulted by the king
especially in all provincial matters.

The Maurya kings were benevolent despots and they were always eager to do well of their
people. It was essentially for this reason that the king dared not to do anything which make
people unhappy and alienate them.

This is so far the power and position of the king is concerned. But he could not run this vast
empire alone. So he had to depend on various officials and ministers. The Mauryan King had
to depend on the council of ministers for the success of the Mauryan administration.
The Council of Ministers of Mauryan Empire were known as the Mantri Parishad.

The number of its ministers in Mauryan administration system were not fixed and varied
according to needs. Kautilya favored a large Council as per the need to the empire. The members
of the Mantri Parishad had to qualify themselves and show their ability by passing tests of
religion, love, fear and money. In times of emergency the king consulted with the Mantri
Parisad and always guided by the majority decision of the Mantri Parishad. Even the absentee
ministers were consulted by letter correspondence.

For efficient central administration of Mauryan government there was an efficient and well
organized hierarchy of bureaucrats who filled the central executive, judicial and revenue
offices. The functionaries of the Mauryan empire administration system were conducted by
several departments, each of which was headed by a Superintendent (Adhyaksha). In order to
conduct the smooth function of the department the Adhyaksha was assisted by a band of clerks,
accountants and spies etc. Possibly the Mauryan central government had not more than 30
Superintendents or Adhyakshas.

In addition to these posts of Superintendents there were two other posts of high officials in
Mauryan Administrative System—the “Samaharta” and the “Sannidhata.” The Samaharta was
the collector general of revenue for the whole of the Mauryan Empire. Eventually he had control
over the expenditure of the revenue as well.

Probably the post of Sannidhata was meant for the officer-in-charge of the treasury and
store. There were also other officers like Army Minister, Chief Priest, Governor of forts, etc.

Mauryan Provincial Administration

For the Mauryan provincial administration, the entire empire was divided into two parts,
sucha as

● The kingdom under the direct rule of the king and

● The vassal states.

The Mauryan territory that was directly ruled by the king was divided into a number of provinces
of Janapadas. Ashoka had at least five provinces whose capitals were Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali,
Suvarnagiri and Pataliputra. Each province was subdivided into number of districts and each
districts was again subdivided into number units.

However, in addition to these centrally ruled Mauryan territories, there were of vassal states.
They enjoyed a great deal of autonomy.

The Mauryan provincial administration was similar to that of the central administration. The
Maurya emperor directly ruled the central and Eastern part of the empire, whereas the other
areas were ruled by the provincial Governors.

The provincial Governors were responsible for the day-to-day administration of the provinces.
They were expected to consult important matter with the Central Administration. There were
also the district officers, reporters, clerks, etc. who helped the smooth running of the provincial
administration. In the provincial administration, the village was at the lowest unit.

Gudhapurusha or Spies
There was a well knitted espionage system of Gudhapurushas in the Mauryan administration.
The spies were of two kind viz. Sansthana (stationary) and Sanchari (wandering). These
spies were ears and eyes of the King, who kept the king informed about all the details of the
bureaucracy. The agents included householders, merchants, disciples, ascetics, pensioners
and Poisonous girls called “Vishkanyas”. The ambassadors who were appointed in the
foreign countries were also sort of spies.
The Army
The overall in charge of the Mauryan army was Commander in chief, who was immediately
junior to the King. The Mauryan army included 6 Lakh infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 9000 war
elephants, 1000 chariots and other things such as transport equipments. There was a War
Council, which was further divided into 6 sub-councils each with 5 members which
formulated policy for infantry, cavalry, elephant forces, chariots, navy and commiserate.
Navy, Transport in forces and commiserate were Mauryan innovations.

Transport
There was a separate department of road. The width of the cattle tracks, pedestrians, chariots
and other traffic were different. There were trunk roads which were managed by the
department of Roads. Trees were planted on both sides of the roads. Inns were constructed at
places on the road. Nurseries and drinking water facilities such as wells, canals were
provided

Census
There was a proper system of census, which registered all the details of the deaths and births.
Nagarika was the census officer who was responsible to keep a ready reference data of the
farmers, cattle, traders, cowherds etc. This was to ensure that proper tax is levied.

Public health
There were proper hospitals and Bheshajas (Doctors) appointed along with a team of
midwifes, nurses etc. Treatment was free universally. Food adulteration was a punishable
offense which invited a death sentence.

Crimes and Judiciary

Suppression of crimes, maintenance of peace and protection of the subjects were the chief
duties of the King. The antisocial elements were called “Kantakas”. There were two kinds of
courts “civils” and criminals. The civils courts were Dharmastheya and the Criminal Courts
were “Kantakashodhna”. The idea of Kantakashodhna was to weed out the antisocial
elements. The king was the source of Supreme Justice. Death Sentences were common and
Asoka’s edicts detail that he gave additional time to the persons under the Capital
punishment to offer donations and repent so that they get a better life in next birth.

Revenue & Taxes

There was an advanced concept of “responsibility accounting’ which envisaged a preparation
of budget and activity planning, reporting on the revenue and expenditure, responsibility for
both the revenues and expenditures. The “full treasury” was guarantee to the prosperity of
state says Arthashastra. Treasury received revenues from farms, mines, forests, pasture lands
etc. Tributes were received when a prince was born. Chief source for revenue was “land tax”.
It was 1/6 to 1/4 of the total produce and it was collected by the revenue officers. The more
productive lands and irrigated lands invited more tax. All craftsmen (except royal) and
traders paid taxes.

Taxes were of two kinds viz. Bali & Bhaga. The Bali was religious tribute. Bhaga was the
part of the produce. Asoka edict says that Lumbini was exempted from Bali and Bhaga was
reduced to 1/8 parts of the reduce. Bhaga, which was 1/6th of the produce, was called
shadbhaga (6th part) or Rajbhaga (state part). Maintenance of the Royal palaces, members,
ministers and public welfare were the main avenues to use the revenue.

Foreign Trade
Foreign Trade by means of the land and sea was prevalent, and it was regulated by passports
kinds of documents. Indigo, cotton and silk was most traded property. Antiochus I with his
joint rule with Selucus issued coins of Indian standard rather than the Attic Standard. This
shows that the Mauryan Economy was world’s largest economy and the currency of Mauryas
was accepted worldwide and was main currency of that time. The trade routes were called
Vanikpatha.

Mauryan Administration Revenue System

Kautilya, the greatest political thinker of ancient India laid greater stress on the treasury as the
smooth and successful functioning of the government depends on finance. The main sources of
Mauryan revenue were taxation and rent. The land revenue was the main source of revenue
collection. Though theoretically the rate of land revenue was 1/6 of the total produce, yet in
reality much higher proportion was charged varying with the economic and local conditions.
From the writings of the Greek writers we came to know that the whole of India was the property
of the king and no private person had any private land nor were they permitted to keep any land
of their own.

In addition to land revenue, there were other sources of revenue of the state. These included
excise duty, forest taxes, water taxes, mines coinage etc. Much of the state revenue was
expended on paying the army, the officials of the royal government, on charities and on different
public works like irrigation projects, road construction etc.

Mauryan Judicial System

As regards the judicial system, the king was the head of the judiciary and he himself was the
judge. He was the highest court of appeal and personally listened to appeals from the people.
However, since the Mauryan Empire was huge, it was not possible for the king to solve each and
every case. So, he appointed many judges subordinate to him to hear the cases.
Ordinary petty cases were generally adjudicated by the village headman. However during
Ashoka’s time many reforms were made in the judicial system. Granting of pardon etc. was
introduced from that time.

Mauryan Municipal Administration System

There were the Municipal boards. The Greek writer Megasthenes had given us an account how
the city of Pataliputra was administered. The Municipal Board was a board of 30 members
divided into six committees. Each of these committees had five members to manage the
administration of the city.

The six committees had the following duties respectively. They were industrial arts, to take care
of the foreigners, to register the birth and death of the citizens of Pataliputra, to look after trade
and commerce, to supervise different manufactures and to collect excise duties and custom
duties.

Mauryan Military Administration

It is also learnt that the war office of Mauryas were managed by a board of 30 members. They
were also divided into six committees, each of the committees having five members to look after:

● Navy,
● Transport and supply,
● Infantry,
● Cavalry,
● The war chariots and of
● War elephants .