Synopsis Ancient Indian polity has been accepted as an interesting subject of study by the scholars for many years. Indian as well as western scholars have thrown light, through their research works, on different political ideas and institutions of ancient India. One of such curious aspects of our ancient polity is the institution of spying. Some scholars have made incidental references to this institution and made occasional comments on it, but no completely separate and pervasive deliberation has yet been made on the ancient Indian system of espionage.