The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c28.143

v1.c28.143

As regards the government of cities, we hear of the mayor (*nāgaraka*)⁷, under whom as in the country districts are *sthānikas* and *gopas*, whose duties similarly include the keeping of registers of persons and property. All inns, hostels, serais, and places of entertainment are under surveillance, and reports are received concerning strangers and frequenters. Then there are the various superintendents of works and dues, of sales, weights and measures, of store-houses and so forth. According to Strabo many of these duties were discharged by boards of five (*pañchāyats*)¹, and he enumerates six such boards, whose respective functions have already been described in Chapter XVI. No doubt the system varied from place to place, and it may have differed according as the city was capital or provincial, subject to a sovereign or independent (δημοκρατουμένη, αὐτόνομος, as according to Megasthenes² most of them had at one time been). We may think of the difference between a royal borough and free town in our own middle ages.