The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c23.35

v1.c23.35

As the preferred family is the joint-family, so the village is possessed as a whole of its holdings in land. Thus the only full discussion in Manu regarding boundaries (the tenth title) has to do with boundaries between two villages. Yet it is clear from other passages that private ownership in land under the king was recognised. He who first cultivates wild land, owns it (Manu, ix, 44). There is also a Sūtra rule: ‘Animals, land, and females are not lost by possession of another’ (Gaut., xii, 39), which appears to imply individual ownership in land. The land around a village on all sides for one hundred ‘bows’ (about 600 feet) is common; and if crops are grown there and cattle injure the crops, no damage can be exacted (Manu, viii, 237 f.); but the fields appear to be private property as they are fenced in¹.