Kautilya, also known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta, wrote the Arthashastra in the second century AD though the date has not been conclusively established. A master stategist who was well-versed in the Vedas and adept at creating intrigues and devising political stratagems, Kautilya was the man who shattered the Nanda dynasty and installed Chandragupta Maurya as the king of Magadha.
We might be made to believe the wealth inequality may be a product of the modern-day societies. As it turns out, there always was such a gap, as explained in the following description of salaries within the Kautilyan state.
There was gap in wealth. The king's wealth was all the surplus wealth of the state, and there were high officials earning 48,000 panas a year, with benefits as per their position.
The ascetics and mendicant monks were poor by choice, while the lowest government salary was 60 panas a year, making the ratio of the highest to the lowest paid 800 to 1.
Note:
Pana is a silver coin. Kara also means a pana.
Half, quarter and one-eighth pana silver coins were also in circulation.
There were sixteen mashakas to a pana and four kakanis to a mashaka.
There were one mashaka, half a mashaka, one kakani and half-kakani copper coins.
The smallest coin was, therefore, one hundred and twenty-eighth the value of the highest.
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