Asoka, the Philosopher Emperor

Extracts from an article by Phiroz Mehta taken from volume 86 of Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1944

Continued from part 1, part 2 and part 3

The organisation of the government machine was wonderful, but no scale of punishments could check corruption. Kautalya observes: ‘Just as with fish moving underwater it cannot possibly be determined whether they are drinking water or not, so it is impossible to detect government servants employed on official duties when helping themselves to money’. (Book 2, Chapter 9.) The third category of officials constituted the War Office. This department also consisted of six boards of five, each being provided with a large secretariat:

1. Admiralty.
2. Quartermaster-General.
3. Infantry.
4. Cavalry.
5. Chariots.
6. Elephants.

Sir George Dunbar, History of India, pp. 38–40

From Alexander’s local domination, conquerors of India, foreign or native, have not actually displaced the rulers they subdued. In all likelihood, the Mauryas loosely imposed their central government upon the tribal system and self-contained, village communities of the land. Asoka himself ruled his empire, a confederation of States, through his four Viceroys at Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali and Suvarnagari. The independent feudalism and oligarchy of various rival states were here replaced by the highly organised bureaucracy of one paramount power supported by a huge standing army — 9,ooo elephants, great strength in chariots, 30,000 cavalry, and 600,000 infantry and buttressed by swarms of secret agents and informers of both sexes.

Over this whole government machine was the sovereign. Kautalya’s enunciation of the principles of foreign policy and the daily time table of the sovereign make the counsels of Machiavelli on statecraft and of Stockmar on royal duties appear almost feeble.

The capital, Patliputra, was organised in four districts, subdivided into wards and controlled by regulations ranging from precautions against fire to the official report on lost property.

What was the position of women in the Mauryan Empire? Both the regular and irregular recognised forms of marriage could be dissolved by mutual consent, or, automatically, by prolonged desertion. A married women owned her dowry and personal adornments as her own private property, which was at her own disposal to a certain extent if she became a widow. Cruelty by either husband or wife was punishable. The honour of women was carefully guarded from the point of view of motherhood. The abduction, hurt or outrage of even a prostitute, her mother or daughter or maidservant was severely punished, and in general, offences against women were dealt with severely. The time was still to come when foreign invasion was to force Hindu Society in self-defence to follow the custom of purdah. The main disability from which women suffered in Mauryan times was that the usual age of marriage had come down to as low as thirteen or twelve. This also meant curtailment of girls’ education, and also a virtual absence of the free choice of a husband. This was a sad contrast to Vedic times, when girls had as good an education as boys — universal education appears to have been prevalent then — and freely chose their own husbands, marrying usually at about seventeen or eighteen, and did not consider it a disgrace to spend a life of spinsterhood!

In the Code of Manu, Book III, 55 and 57, we read:

55. Honour to the faithful woman Be by loving husband paid, By her father, by her brother, If they seek their virtue’s meed.

57. And where women grieve and languish Perish men of fated race, But in homes where they are honoured Prosper men in worth and grace. 

Taxation was very heavy and ingeniously comprehensive. But the cost of the elaborate system of government and of the maintenance of a highly-trained formidable standing army was also enormous. Moreover, no such expedients as national debts or long term government loans were in vogue then. Apart from the exactions of tax-collectors, the life of the peoples was quiet and fairly happy. The emperor and his court lived a life of magnificence and splendour. Hunting and gladiatorial shows, and long pleasure tours with a splendid retinue were the royal. amusements. Wine, women and song all played their respectable parts in the lives of the three great Mauryan Emperors — respectable because moderate, as proved by the fact that their abilities as administrators and as generals suffered no impairment.

Continued in part 5, part 6 and part 7

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