Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s13: Villages

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s13

Language
English

Villages

c11.s13.1

The villages were, as ever in ancient India, semi-autonomous, enjoying a good deal of freedom in ordering their affairs; they regulated land and waterrights, cultivation and payment of revenue through the *grāmaṇi*, an official of the central government; the village-elders (*grāma-vṛddhas*) are often mentiond in the *Arthaśāstra*³ and they must have had a large share in guiding the people generally and in assisting the officials of the government in disposing of petty disputes arising in the village. Cultivable land was parcelled out in estates belonging to individuals, while pasture and forest lands were held in common. The check and control of the bureaucracy was provided not only by officials openly charged with such duties of inspection, audit and report like the *pradeshtṛis*, but by the regular employment of spies and *agents provocateurs*; the role of spies is no doubt greatly exaggerated in the scenes of the *Mudrārākshasa* which purports to dramatise the revolution by which the empire of the Nandas was overthrown and that of the Mauryas founded by Kauṭilya and Chandragupta; but the constant use of secret means in administration, diplomacy and war was everywhere taken for granted and few modern governments could be said yet to have outgrown the practice.

c11.s13.2

³ *Ibid.* II. 1; III. 5, 9, 12.

Linked texts (2)