The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c8.31

c8.31

Though the ancient Indo-Aryan village was essentially a self-governing community, managing its own domestic concerns and only paying to a central authority the customary *bali*, or tribute, due to it, the principle of co-operation for the purpose of carrying out larger public works which were beyond the means of single villages was always recognised. Not only were the village artisans liable to be called upon for the King's service in war or peace, but the villages united of their own accord to build assembly-halls, pilgrims' rest-houses, and irrigation works, to lay out and plant public parks, and to keep in order the main roads of the district.¹