State and Government in Ancient India c18.s1.68

c18.s1.68

We have shown already how the village assemblies had developed a regular council in Bihar, Rajputana, Central India, Mahārāshṭra and Karnāṭak at least in the Gupta and the post-Gupta periods. Neither Smṛitis nor inscriptions, however, enlighten us as to the manner in which it was constituted. The committee was reconstituted annually in Tamil country, as shown above; in an inscription from Bhinmal in Rajputana, (dated 1277 A.D.), we find the members of the local committee making a religious grant and observing that though they have made the donation, its merit will belong to all those who may happen to become members of the council in future.³ This suggests that the members of the village councils used to be periodically changed in the north as well. We, however, have no information about the duration of the tenure of their office. At Uttaramerur, the selection was by lots. It does not seem that election of the modern type giving rise to party jealousies and rivalries was prevailing aynwhere. Persons were periodically elevated to the council by the consensus of public opinion as expressed in a general meeting of all the respectable householders of the village. Caste consideration did not sway in the selection of the council members. Many non-Brāhmaṇas worked on it in the Gupta age ; on the judgments of many village Panchāyats in the Maratha period appear the signatures of not only non-Brāhmaṇas but also of untouchables.