Arthashastra — Adhyakshaprachara, Sutra 1

Devanagari script

समाहर्ता दुर्गं राष्ट्रं खनिं सेतुं वनं व्रजं वणिक्पथं चावेक्षेत ॥ कZ_०२.६.०१ ॥

Transliteration

samāhartā durgaṃ rāṣṭraṃ khaniṃ setuṃ vanaṃ vrajaṃ vaṇikpathaṃ cāvekṣeta

Translation

အထွေထွေ အခွန်ကောက်ခံရေးမှူး (Collector-General) သည် ကာကွယ်ရေးမြို့တော်၊ နိုင်ငံဒေသ/ပြည်နယ်များ၊ သတ္တုတွင်းများ၊ ရေသွင်းရေထုတ်လုပ်ငန်း/တံတားတားဆီးတံတား (embankments) များ၊ တောများ၊ နွားခြံ/မြက်ခင်းအခြေစိုက်စခန်းများနှင့် ကုန်သည်လမ်းကြောင်းများကို စစ်ဆေးရမည်။

Word by Word

• समाहर्ता: the samāhartṛ (chief revenue collector)
• Type: Noun (agent noun)
• Root: सम्-आ-हृ
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग; प्रथमा-एकवचन; कर्तृवाचक (कर्तरि तृच्/तृन्-प्रत्ययार्थक ‘-तृ’), ‘collector/receiver’

• दुर्गम्: the fort
• Type: Noun
• Root: दुर्ग
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; द्वितीया-एकवचन; कर्म

• राष्ट्रम्: the realm (territory)
• Type: Noun
• Root: राष्ट्र
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; द्वितीया-एकवचन; कर्म

• खनिम्: the mine
• Type: Noun
• Root: खनि
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग; द्वितीया-एकवचन; कर्म

• सेतुम्: the dam/embankment (irrigation work)
• Type: Noun
• Root: सेतु
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग; द्वितीया-एकवचन; कर्म

• वनम्: the forest
• Type: Noun
• Root: वन
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; द्वितीया-एकवचन; कर्म

• व्रजम्: the cattle-pen / pastoral settlement
• Type: Noun
• Root: व्रज
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग; द्वितीया-एकवचन; कर्म

• वणिक्पथम्: the merchants’ route (trade route)
• Type: Noun (compound)
• Root: पथ
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग; द्वितीया-एकवचन; समासः ‘वणिक् + पथ’ = वणिजां पथः; कर्म

• च: and
• Type: Particle
• Root: च
• Form: समुच्चयार्थक अव्यय

• अवेक्षेत: should inspect / should oversee
• Type: Verb
• Root: अव-ईक्ष्
• Form: लोट् (आज्ञार्थे) परस्मैपदम्; प्रथमपुरुष; एकवचन; विधिलिङ्गार्थे ‘should inspect/oversee’

Entities Mentioned

• samāhartṛ (collector-general)
• fort administration
• provincial economy
• mines
• irrigation works
• forests
• pastoral assets
• trade routes

More Details

FAQs

Why is the Collector-General tasked with inspecting forts, mines, forests, and trade routes?

Because state revenue depends on securing strategic assets and productive systems; inspection links fiscal administration to territorial control, resource governance, and commerce protection.