The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s2: II. Rural Settlements
The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s2
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II. Rural Settlements
v1.c19.s2.1
The most noteworthy fact concerning the economic life of ancient Bengal is the preponderance of rural settlements. From the commencement of the historical period, these seem to have always dominated the landscape of this province. The people established themselves in villages, and organised their lands—the fields, meadow and wood-lands—to serve their essential needs. A large number of these villages (grāmas) are mentioned in contemporary inscriptions, and although they varied considerably in size,¹ they seem to have been all alike in their close dependence on the utilization of the soil on which they stood. Broadly speaking, they appear also to have been of one uniform pattern. For, as far as available evidence indicates, they were usually of the ‘nucleated,’ not of the ‘single farm’ type. That is to say, the rural population lived in compact groups, and not in widely scattered habitations. Why it was so, it is difficult to say. It may be suggested, however, that the nucleated village is best adapted to an agrarian system in which cultivation prominently figures, whereas scattered settlements have their raison d'etre in an economic scheme where the emphasis is on pasture.
v1.c19.s2.2
¹ Cf. the areas of the villages in the Naihāṭi Plate of Vallālasena and the Govindapur and Tarpandighi Plates of Lakshmaṇasena (IB. 78, 97, 100). Particularly small villages appear to have borne the appellation of pāṭaka, from which perhaps the modern term pāḍā has been derived. Cf. the Mādhāinagar Plate of Lakshmaṇasena, which mentions two such pāṭakas, viz. Chaḍaspasā-pāṭaka and Guṇḍisthirā-pāṭaka (ibid. 115). Similarly the Madhyapāḍā Grant of Viśvarūpasena refers to Ajikulā-pāṭaka and Ghāghara-kāṭṭi-pāṭaka (ibid. 178-79)
v1.c19.s2.3
Inscriptions further reveal that the villages usually consisted of certain well defined parts, viz., village settlement or habitat (vāstu), arable land (kshetra), and natural meadow-land (go-chara), which provided pasture for live-stock. The expression trina-pūti-go-chara-paryantah, mentioned in most of the Pāla and Sena land-grants, suggests that the pasture-ground produced various kinds of grass, and was usually located in a corner of the village or along the village boundaries. Apart from these, most of the villages also contained pits and canals (garta and nāla), which might have served the purpose of drainage, barren tracts (ushara), tanks, reservoirs and temples, besides cattle-tracks (go-patha or go-mārga) and ordinary roads and paths. A few villages are also stated to have been in possession of woodlands or jungles,² where the common folk probably went to gather their fire-wood and litter. It is thus clear that the various types of land, attached to the village, were not only distinguished and classified from the point of view of their usefulness to man, but were organised for exploitation according to certain systems and customary practices so as best to satisfy human needs.
v1.c19.s2.4
² EI. II. 357; IB. 63 (sa-vana), 74, 87 (sa-jhāṭa-viṭapa).