State and Government in Ancient India c17.s5.20

c17.s5.20

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.