officer charged with executive duties of revenue collection and police ' (Thomas, J. R. A. S., 1914, p. 385), must have been more or less equivalent to the District officer or magistrate and collector of modern India, the Âmil of Mogul times.
The chief difliculty in the document is the interpretation of the technical term anusaṁyâna, which has not been met with elsewhere than in the edicts. It cannot possibly mean 'assembly,' as supposed at one time, nor does the rendering 'circuit' seem to be tenable. Jayaswal rightly points out that the whole administrative staff from the Governor down to the clerks could not possibly all go on circuit at once every five years. He is probably correct in referring to the Sukranîti and interpreting the term as signifying a regular system of transfer from one station or district to another, designed to prevent the abuses apt to arise when officials remain too long in a particular locality (J. B. 0. Res. Soc., iv. 37). That interpretation fits in with the etymology of the term and with the language of the concluding paragraphs of the Provincials' Edict. The summary of the Law is repeated elsewhere, more than once. in slightly variant language, as in R. E. IV. The other difficulty concerns the Word parishad (palisâ), of which the general meaning is 'session' or 'assembly.' In the law books it is usually applied to an advisory council composed of from three to ten Brahmans learned in the sacred law. Here again I agree with Jayaswal in believing that the reference must be to the Mantri—parishad, or Council of. Ministers mentioned in the Arthaśtâstra (Bk. i, ch. 15).
Gaṇanâ certainly is the Accounts Department, as interpreted by D. R. Bhandarkar. The intention may be that the Accountant-General or Controller should see that the transfers were carried out, and salaries only paid in case of obedience. But it must be confessed that the connexion of the final sentence with the rest of the document remains obscure, and some improve1nent.in the rendering may be hoped for. The old interpretations were clearly Wrong, and need not be discussed. The phrase hetuto cha vyamjanato cha nndoubtedly refers to the principle and the wording of the imperial commands. A suggested, nearly equivalent, rendering is ‘the spirit and the
