[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922) › v1.c19.s9.82 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.82 The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.82 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c19.s9.82](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.82) A \*gāma\* might apparently mean anything from a group of two or three houses¹⁰ to an indefinite number. It was the generic, inclusive term for an inhabited settlement, not possessing the fortifications of a \*nagara\*, or the ruler’s palace of a \*rājadhānī\*. The number of inhabitants in the \*gāmas\* of the Jātaka tales varied from 30 to 1000 families. And family (\*kula\*), it must be remembered, was a more comprehensive unit than it is with us, including not only father and mother, children and grandparents, but also the wives and children of the sons. \*Gāma\*, it is true, might be used to differentiate a class of settlement, as in the compound \*gāma-nigama\*, ‘villages and towns’; but it is also used in the wider, looser sense of group as opposed to single house. For instance, a fire, when starting in a house, may extend to the whole \*gāma\*¹. When a \*bhikkhu\* leaves park, forest, or mountain to seek alms, he ‘enters the \*gāma\*²,’ whether it be a neighbouring village, or the suburbs of great Sāvatthī³. - [Previous: v1.c19.s9.81](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.81) - [Next: v1.c19.s9.83](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.83) - [Up: v1.c19.s9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.82](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.82) · Pramāṇa