Political Concepts in Ancient India /51

AKṚTA--(KṢETRA) A piece of waste or unculti-
vated land (AŚ. II.1). Kautilya suggests that
anybody who would bring such a land under
cultivation would not have to lose its ownership.
cf; akṛtāni kartṛbhyo nādeyāt (AŚ. II.1).
 
AKṚTYA--Contented subjects who are not liable
to be won over by the enemy with any propa-
ganda (AŚ. I.13, I.14).
 
AKṢAPAṬALA--A depository of royal documents
and account books. (vide ASŚ. II.7).
 
AKṢAPAṬALĀDHYAKṢA—(1) The officer in
charge of the depository of the royal docu-
ments and the account books. The duties
and responsibilities of this executive officer
are described by Kautilya in ASṭilya in AŚ. II.7. The
officer is, however, referred to as Adhyakṣa,
but the references being in the context of
the Akṣapatṭala (q.v.), we take the term
Adhyakṣa to be an abbreviation of the
more relevant term Akṣapaṭalādhyakṣa. See, Sircar, Glossary, p. 14 and Kane, HD. III. p. 143.
(2) Same as Mahakşapatākṣapaṭalika (Superintendent
of records and accounts), often given in
the inscriptional records. See, Altekar, SGAI, p. 199, Sircar, Ibid., p. 178.
 
AKṢAVĀPA--(1) One of the eleven Ratnins (q.v.).
(2) From akşṣa (meaning dice) the present term