Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c8.s4.16

c8.s4.16

In India the village or a *gāma* formed the unit of administration. The bulk of the people as in present days lived in the villages,¹ which are described as lying within easy reach of the village cocks (*kukkuṭa-saṇḍeya-gāmapaura*),² and where one had to pay the eighteen kinds of taxes referred to above. A *gāma* was the generic term for an inhabited settlement, not possessing the fortifications of a *nagara* or a *rājadhānī*. A large number of families were reckoned as constituting a village.³ We are told that ninety six villages were attached to the town of Mahurā⁴ An interesting discussion is given on what constitutes a village in the *Bṛhatkalpa Bhāṣya*. (i) It is said that the limit of a village is the distance to which the cows go to graze. But this assertion is contested on the ground that the cows procceded to other villages as well; (ii) then it is stated that the distance which a grass-cutter or a wood-cutter, getting up early morning covers and after doing his work returns at sunset to his own place is called a village; (iii) a village has its own boundary; (iv) its extent could also be determined by the situation of the village garden at the end; (v) or the village-well; (vi) or the extent to which the children go to play; (vii) the nucleus of the village is formed by the erection of *devakula*.