Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.s2.21

c4.s2.21

Every village was under the control of its headman called the *gāmabhojaka* or the *gāmaṇi*.⁶ The literal meaning of the title *gāmabhojaka* would be "one who enjoys a village", *i.e.*, a village given in reward by the king. Now, as has already been hinted at before,⁷ there seem to have been two types of villages, *viz.*, (*a*) those, the revenues yielded by which were enjoyed by an individual and (*b*) others, the revenues of which were enjoyed by the State. In either case there must be a headman. Whether this headman was the rewarded person himself or not, is not at all clear. It may be easily supposed, however, that the higher officers like the *purohita*, who were the recipients of such grants, could not possibly act as the headmen of the villages. In that case, they only had concern with the annual income to fetch which they would proceed to their respective villages and leave every other item of administration in the hands of a person who was really the headman. In some other cases, where the recipients were just ordinary persons like a merchant or a Brāhmaṇa, the headman may have been the same as the recipient. Anyhow, since the distinction cannot be more comprehensive, we may proceed with our task of observing the actual administration of a village, taking the *gāmabhojaka* of the stories as the headman proper.