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State and Government in Ancient India c17.s5: Town Administration

State and Government in Ancient India c17.s5

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Town Administration

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In the modern times, the administrative organisation of a metropolitan city like Bombay differs considerably from that of an unimportant town in the moffusil. There are no doubt certain common principles underlying the constitution of the Bombay Corporation and that of a town municipality, but the former discharges many more functions and requires many more sub-committees for that purpose than is the case with the latter. The same was the case in ancient India.

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We have very little information about the cities and their administration in the Vedic period. The civilisation was mostly a rural one, and towns and cities did not form its important feature. Very little is known about the town life of the period of the Later Saṁhitās and Brāhmaṇas.

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When, however, we reach the historic period proper, we find that the Punjab was studded with a large number of towns and cities on the eve of the invasion of Alexander the Great. Most of them were autonomous to a great extent, being governed by their own councils. How these councils were constituted is not, however, described ; very probably experienced elders were coopted on them by a general consensus of public opinion. The chief officer of the town was called Sarvārthachintaka by this time.²

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² नगरे नगरे चैव कुर्यात्सर्वार्थचिन्तकम् । *Manu*, VII. 121

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We get more detailed information of the administration of ordinary towns from the Gupta period onwards. It was usually presided over by an officer of the central government usually called *purapāla*. If the town was the headquarters of a district, the district officer usually discharged this duty as well. If the town was also a fort, it used to have another imperial officer called *koṭṭapāla*, who had under him a number of commandants.¹ Very often the *purapālas* were themselves military captains, as was the case with ministers and district officers as well; thus Rudrapayya, who was the prefect of the town of Saravṭura in Karnāṭak, was a bodyguard of the Rāshtrakūṭa emperor Kṛishṇa III.² Mahādeva and Pātāladeva, the joint prefects of Badāmī under Jagadekamalla in 1140, were both *daṇḍanāyakas* or military captains. Sometimes, however, the *purapālas* were selected from among scholars as well, some of whom were interested in promoting the study of ‘the everlasting six systems of philosophy.’³ It is quite possible that they might have combined the literary qualifications with military ability as well.

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¹ Such was the case at Gwalior in *c.* 875 A. D.; *E. I.*, I. pp. 154-60

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² *I. A.*, XVII. p. 258

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³ *I. A.*, XV. p. 15

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The *purapāla* or the governor was assisted by a non-official committee, variously called as *goshṭhī*, *pañchakula* or *chaukadīka*⁴ in the different parts of the country. All classes and interests were represented on the committee. Sometimes towns were divided into wards and each ward sent its own members to the committee. Thus in the town of Ghaplop in Rajputana, there were eight wards, known as *wāḍās*, each of which used to send two representatives.⁵ How the representatives were selected, we do not know. Very probably elderly persons, who had earned the regard of the residents by their experience, character and ability, must have been sent to the council by a general consensus of public opinion.

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⁴ At Ghalop in Rajputana; *E. I.*, XI. p. 39

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⁵ *Ibid.*

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The *pañchakula* usually consisted not necessarily of five but often of a larger number of representatives thus sent by the different wards. It used to have an executive of its own for the speedy and convenient dispatch of business. The executive was called *vāra* in Rajputana and Central India during the Pratīhāra period.¹ Prima facie, this appears to be a queer name; but it was probably given to the executive because it used to change by turn (*vāra*). An 11th century record from Bhinmal refers to a gentleman as the *vārika* of the current year.² This suggests that the executive committee changed annually at the city. At Siyadoni the same persons are seen to have been *vārikas* both in 967 and in 969 A.D.³ It appears that the executive was elected at this city for a period which was longer than one year.

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¹ *E. I.*, I. p. 154 and pp. 173-79

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² वर्तमानवर्षवारिकजोगचंद्र । *B. G.*, I. i. p. 43

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³ *E. I.*, I. 154; pp. 173-79

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The number of members of the executive committee must naturally have varied according to the needs of each case. At Siyadoni they were only two but at Gwalior they were three. It was their duty to look after all the executive work, the collection of taxes, the investment and recovery of public funds, the administration of trust funds, etc.

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The *vārikas* were assisted in their work by a permanent office and staff. The former was called *sthāna* in Rajputana and used to keep carefully all records of important documents⁴. Thus when the horse dealers of Pehoa decided to give a voluntary cess, they passed a formal resolution and deposited its copy in the office (*sthāna*) of the municipality, so that it might be enabled in the future to collect the dues according to the agreed scheme. A permanent secretary (*karṇaika*) was in charge of the records and correspondence of the committee. Important documents were carefully drafted by him under the instructions of the committee. He must have had a sufficient clerical staff under him. An officer called *kauptika* used to be appointed for collecting the market dues, which probably formed the main stay of the local finance. Sometimes the dues of the Central government in customs duties were collected by the town committee on its behalf; thus the pilgrim tax at Bāhuloda in Gujarat, which amounted to several lakhs, was collected in the 12th century by the local municipality on behalf of the central government.¹

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⁴ लिखितं स्थानानुमतेन करणिकसर्व्वहारिणा। *E. I.*, I. p. 79

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¹ *Prabandhachintāmaṇi*, p. 48

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The instances of town-councils given so far all hail from Gujarat and Rajputana; but it should not be supposed that these bodies did not exist elsewhere. At Nāsik in Mahārāshṭra there was a town council (*nigamasabhā*) in the 2nd century A.D.; all documents creating or transferring rights in landed property were registered in its office.² The council of Koṭivarsha in Bengal has been already described in connection with the district administration. At the town of Guṇapura in Koṅkan, the prefect was assisted by a committee consisting of one Brāhmaṇa, one merchant and two bankers.³ The city of Aihola in Karnātak had its own corporation throughout the Rāshtrakūṭa and Chāulukya periods. The town of Mulunda of the same province was divided into five wards. As the inscription referring to this topic is fragmentary, no definite conclusion can be drawn; but it is not unlikely that the division into wards may have a reference to the representation on the committee, as was the case with the eight wards of Ghalop referred to above (p. 221). The town committees, therefore, were a common feature of the ancient Indian administration.

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² *E. I.*, VIII p. 73

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³ *E. I.*, III. p. 260

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We shall conclude this chapter with a brief description of the corporation of Pāṭaliputra during the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C.⁴ Being imperial capital, thronged with foreigners, its constitution was somewhat different, but it followed the same general principles which governed the constitution of ordinary town committees. It consisted of a body of 30 members divided into five sub-committees. Out of these sub-committees, the one dealing with foreigners, watching their movements and providing for their needs, must have existed only in big capitals or busy ports, where they resided in large numbers. The second committee, dealing with vital statistics and registering carefully the births and deaths, is not referred to in any later inscriptions or Smṛitis. Probably it was a Mauryan innovation and did not become popular in later times. The third committee, which supervised over the manufacture of articles, must have usually existed only in industrial towns and cities. The fourth and fifth committees dealt with the fixation of fair wages, the supervision of the market, the supply of pure and unadulterated goods and the collection of the different dues and taxes from the merchants. These duties were discharged by most of the town and village boards throughout Indian history. We miss the public works committee, usually known in Tamil country as the tank or the garden committee in later times, probably because Pāṭaliputra, being the imperial capital, its needs in this connection were met by the officers and departments of the Central Government. None of the sub-committees is seen administering trust funds for the benefit of the community, as was invariably done by the town councils and village committees in later times. Probably this work was done by some purely non-official bodies, as indicated by the *Arthaśāstra*. The Greek writers do not inform us about the constitution of this board and its different sub-committees, whether they were official or non-official, elected or nominated. Pāṭaliputra being the imperial capital of a big empire, it is but natural that many officials must have been appointed on the board like the superintendents of the markets, tolls, weights and measures etc. referred to in the *Arthaśāstra*. There is, however, no direct evidence on the point. The board of moffiusil towns consisted mostly of non-officials, as shown already.

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⁴ 3. Based on the *Arthaśāstra* and Megasthenes' account

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