The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s3.21

c35.s3.21

Certain long inscriptions of Parāntaka I are of especial interest to the students of village institutions by reason of the full details which they give of the manner in which local affairs were administered by well-organized local committees, or panchāyats, exercising their extensive administrative and judicial powers under royal sanction. It is a pity that this apparently excellent system of local self-government, really popular in origin, should have died out ages ago. Modern governments would be happier if they could command equally effective local agency. The subject has been studied carefully by several Indian scholars, whose disquisitions are well worth reading. Whenever the mediaeval history of Southern India comes to be treated in detail, a long and interesting chapter must be devoted to the methods of Chola administration.¹