Sutra 4

Devanagari script

अष्टशतग्राम्या मध्ये स्थानीयं चतुह्शतग्राम्या द्रोणमुखम् द्विशतग्राम्याः कार्वटिकम् दशग्रामीसंग्रहेण संग्रहं स्थापयेत् ॥ कZ_०२.०१.०४ ॥

Transliteration

aṣṭaśatagrāmyā madhye sthānīyaṃ catuḥśatagrāmyā droṇamukham dviśatagrāmyāḥ kārvaṭikam daśagrāmīsaṃgraheṇa saṃgrahaṃ sthāpayet

Translation

ရွာ ၈၀၀ ပါဝင်သော အစုအဖွဲ့အတွင်းတွင် ဒေသဆိုင်ရာ ဌာနချုပ် (sthānīya) ကို တည်ထောင်သင့်သည်။ ရွာ ၄၀၀ အတွင်းတွင် droṇamukha ကို၊ ရွာ ၂၀၀ အတွင်းတွင် စျေးကွက်ဗဟို (kārvaṭika) ကို တည်ထောင်သင့်သည်။ ထို့ပြင် ရွာ ၁၀ ရွာ စုစည်းမှုအတွက် ဒေသခံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးယူနစ် (saṃgraha) ကို တည်ထောင်သင့်သည်။

Word by Word

• अष्टशतग्राम्याः: (a unit/region) consisting of eight hundred villages
• Type: Noun
• Root: ग्राम
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग; प्रथमा बहुवचन; विशेषणरूपेण (ग्राम्या = ग्रामसम्बद्धा/ग्रामपरिमाणयुक्ता)

• मध्ये: in the middle; within
• Type: Noun (used adverbially)
• Root: मध्य
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; सप्तमी एकवचन; अव्ययीभावार्थे ‘मध्ये’ = ‘in the midst/within’

• स्थानीयम्: the local administrative headquarters (sthānīya)
• Type: Noun
• Root: स्थान
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; प्रथमा/द्वितीया एकवचन; (अत्र) प्रथमा—स्थापनीय-केन्द्रस्य नाम

• चतुशतग्राम्याः: (a unit/region) consisting of four hundred villages
• Type: Noun
• Root: ग्राम
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग; प्रथमा बहुवचन; विशेषणरूपेण

• द्रोणमुखम्: the droṇamukha (administrative center/unit)
• Type: Noun
• Root: द्रोणमुख
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; प्रथमा/द्वितीया एकवचन; प्रशासनिक-एकक-नाम

• द्विशतग्राम्याः: (a unit/region) consisting of two hundred villages
• Type: Noun
• Root: ग्राम
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग; प्रथमा बहुवचन; विशेषणरूपेण

• कार्वटिकम्: the kārvaṭika (administrative center/unit)
• Type: Noun
• Root: कार्वटिक
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; प्रथमा/द्वितीया एकवचन; प्रशासनिक-एकक-नाम

• दशग्रामीसंग्रहेण: by means of a collection/cluster of ten villages
• Type: Noun
• Root: संग्रह
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग; तृतीया एकवचन; ‘दशग्रामी’ (दश-ग्राम-समूहः) + ‘संग्रह’ (collection/cluster)

• संग्रहम्: a collection/cluster (administrative grouping)
• Type: Noun
• Root: संग्रह
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग; द्वितीया एकवचन; कर्मपदम्

• स्थापयेत्: should establish; should set up
• Type: Verb
• Root: स्था (स्थापयति—णिच्)
• Form: लिङ् (विधिलिङ्); परस्मैपदम्; प्रथमपुरुष एकवचन; causative (णिच्) ‘he should establish’

Entities Mentioned

• sthānīya
• droṇamukha
• kārvaṭika
• saṃgraha
• grāma

More Details

FAQs

What does this verse reveal about Kautilya’s administrative design?

A tiered territorial grid with defined catchment sizes, enabling predictable supervision, taxation, policing, and logistics.

Why include kārvaṭika as a node?

It anchors trade and movement control—useful for revenue, intelligence, and supply-chain management.