State and Government in Ancient India c18.s1.121

c18.s1.121

Very little is known about the procedure of the meetings of the Village Council or the Panchāyat. Probably the village headman in Northern India and the Deccan and the *madhyastha* in Tamil country presided over the meetings, which were usually held in the village office (*chāvadi*). The village accountant must have kept a record of the proceedings in the village office, especially when grants were accepted or tax exemptions granted. Sometimes the important resolutions on such matters were got engraved on the walls of the village temple; that is how we happen to know about them after the lapse of ten centuries.