Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/85

Rh supplemented by some novel arrangements and slightly modiﬁed by certain reforms. The systematic and invaluable treatise on the Art of Government ascribed to Kantalya, Kautilya, or Chânakya, the capable, although unscrupulous, minister of the first Maurya sovereign , and undoubtedly of early date, throws much Welcome light on the principles of government as practised by ancient Indian kings, conﬁrming and explaining in many respects the Greek accounts which previously stood alone. Numerous particulars of the civil and ecclesiastical organization of the empire are revealed by close examination of the Asoka inscriptions, and careful comparison of all the data of various kinds enables the historian to say with truth