Hindu Administrative Institutions c12.s1.10

c12.s1.10

The Viṣṇu saṃhita throws some new light on the question of administrative divisions of the rural establishment. Like Kauṭalya and Manu, the author of this saṃhita mentions a village, ten villages, one hundred villages and lastly adds deśa as an administrative unit.² This deśa may either refer to the group of a thousand villages, or a separate group called deśa may have been brought into existence for convenience of rural administration with a view to making it more efficient. According to Sukrācārya a grāma or a village is in area a krośa, and its yield is reckoned to be a thousand silver karṣa. Two territorial subdivisions to a grāma are mentioned—the palli and the kumbha.³ The area of the former is half what constitutes a grāma, whilst that of the kumbha is half of the palli, or one-fourth of the grāma. Thus it is obvious that the grāma in ancient India had to conform to definite measurements. Its area roughly comprised two square miles. These grāmas have different mārgas or roads and streets—padya, vīthi, mārga and rājamārga.⁴ The precision of character of these streets and roads is something striking. The width of these is three, five, ten and fifteen cubits respectively. The width of the rāja-