The Rashtrakutas and their Times c17.s3.45

c17.s3.45

With the exception noted above, the powers and functions of the village councils were similar to those in the south. They were looking after and arranging for the public works and other needs of the village community. We find them organising schools and charity houses,(70) managing temple property(71) where no sect or other organisation existed,(72) and arranging for the maintenance and repairs of the village tank.(73) They were also receiving deposits on trust from private individuals to be utilised for specific public works according to their wishes.(74) On such occasions the feet of all of the Mahājanas, even when their number was 200 or 300, were washed by the donors, even if the latter were provincial or district governors, and the ownership of the property was formerly conveyed in trust to them. This procedure would incidentally show the high reverence in which they were held. The Mahājanas used to guarantee perpetual proper untilisation of the funds entrusted to them for the purposes contemplated. It is obvious that the Mahājanas must have had their own banks, for they used to undertake the payment of the agreed interest annually on the deposits received by them. It is, however, equally probable that in many cases they may not have had public village banks under their control and management, but may have invested the sums through some village money-lenders of known credit and character. They used to raise subscriptions for public works and collect voluntary contributions; steps were also taken by them to commemorate the memory of distinguished donors by engraving their donations on stone tablets. The village councils were enabled to undertake and finance these public works by the policy of the central government of reserving a part of the revenues collected in the village for its local purposes. The village revenues were divided into two parts, Melā-vāram or government share and Chadi-vāram or the inhabitants' share.(75) The latter was at the entire disposal of the village council, and it could not be alienated even by the king except with the consent of the people. I have already shown elsewhere that the people's share of the revenues of a village was usually in the vicinity of 15% of the total revenues collected in the locality even under the British administration as late as 1830 A.D.(76) This regular income was supplemented by public subscriptions, and voluntary imposts and charity induced by the Ishtāpūrta theory which extolled to the skies the benefactors of the community, who obliged it by building public wells and tanks and maintaining schools and hospitals.