Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s4.69

c19.s4.69

The smallest administrative units were the villages called *Grāma* or *Grāmāhāra*,⁶ and the smaller towns or emporia called *Nigama*.¹ The affairs of a *Grāma* were controlled by officers styled *Grāmeyika Āyutta*² who were apparently headed by the *Grāmaṇī*,³ *Grāmika*,⁴ *Grāmabhojaka*⁵ or (*Grāma*) *Mahattaraka*. Lüders’ (Mathurā) Inscription, No. 48, gives the names of two such *Grāmikas*, Jayadeva and Jayanāga. In Southern India we have the curious title “Muluḍa” applied to the head of a village.⁶ The chief men of the Nigamas were the *Gahapatis*,⁷ the counterparts of the *Grāmavṛiddhas* of villages. In Lüders’ Inscription, No. 1153, we have evidence of the corporate activity of a *dhamma-nigama* headed by the *Gahapati*. The *Grāma* and *Nigama* organisation was the most durable part of the Ancient Indian system of government, and centuries of Scythian rule could not wipe it out of existence. The village and the Nigamas were also the nurseries of those ideas of associate life which found vent in the organisation of societies, committees, assemblies and corporations styled *Goshṭhīs*,⁸ *Nikāyas*,⁹ *Parishads*,¹⁰ *Saṁghas*,¹¹ etc., about which the inscriptions of the period speak so much. Not the least interesting of these institutions was the “*Goshṭhī*” which afforded a field for co-operation between kings and villagers. Lüders' Ins., Nos., 1332 to 1338, speak of a Goshṭhī which was headed by the *Rājan*, and which counted among its officials the son of a village headman.