The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.79

v1.c19.s9.79

When, in the Jātaka legend, a king of Videha abandons the world as anchorite, he is described as renouncing both his capital, the city (*nagara*) of Mithilā, seven *yojanas* (in circumference), and his realm of sixteen thousand *gāmas*⁸. It may sound incredible that a country owning such a wealth of ‘villages’ should contain but one town, and that so vast in extent, as to suggest inclusion not only of parks but of suburban *gāmas*⁹. There was not, however, any such hard and fast line between *gāma* and *nigama* (small town) to warrant the exclusion, in this description, of some *gāmas* which may have amounted to *nigamas*. A similar vagueness holds between our ‘town’ and ‘village.’