The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c9.s3.t2.3

v1.c9.s3.t2.3

Everywhere the village (*grāma*) was the lowest unit of administration. The *gāmuṇḍa* (village officer) was the link between the villagers and the king's government, and he seems to have been an official appointed from the centre. He may have been identical with the *grāma-bhogika* mentioned above, but we cannot be sure of this. Two *gāmuṇḍas* are known from the inscriptions each to have built a *Jinālaya* (Jain temple), both of the reign of Kīrtti-varman II, one of them being Kaliyamma, the *gāmuṇḍa* of Jebulagēri,¹ the other mentioned in the Āḍūr stone inscription.² The *karaṇas* (village-accountants) are also mentioned in the Āḍūr inscription as having joined the *gāmuṇḍas* in preferring a request to *Mādhavatti-arasa*. The details of village administration and the regulation of its social and economic affairs were in the hands of the *Mahājanas* (village-elders), who are stated to have been governing Benniyur in the reign of Vijayāditya,³ and whose permission was obtained in another instance before a piece of land was given away to a temple—*mahājana-prajā-sammatade-koṭṭadu*,⁴ i.e. given away with the assent of the subjects who were *mahājanas*.