Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/147

 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION 117 impaired the efficiency of a craftsman by causing the loss of a hand or an eye. The second Board devoted its energies to the case of foreign residents and visitors, and performed duties which in modern Europe are entrusted to the consuls representing foreign powers. All foreigners were closely watched by officials, who provided suitable lodgings, escorts, and, in case of need, medical attendance. De- ceased strangers were decently buried, and their estates were administered by the commissioners, who forwarded the assets to. the persons entitled. The existence of these elaborate regulations is conclusive proof that the Maurya empire in the third century B. c. was in con- stant intercourse with foreign states, and that large numbers of strangers visited the capital on business. The third Board was responsible for the systematic registration of births and deaths, and we are expressly informed that the system of registration was enforced for the information of the government, as well as for facility in levying the taxes. The taxation referred to was probably a poll-tax, at the rate of so much a head annually. Nothing in the legislation of Chandragupta is more astonishing to the observer familiar with the lax methods of ordinary Oriental governments than this registration of births and deaths. The spontaneous adoption of such a measure by an Indian native state in modern times is unheard-of, and it is impossible to imagine an old-fashioned raja feeling anxious " that births and deaths among both high and low might not be concealed." Even the Anglo-Indian administration.