Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.s2.50

c4.s2.50

From all this, it seems that the village government was largely carried on by the committees with the help of the headman, and, excepting judicial matters of graver character and the revenue-collection, the Central Government did not interfere much with the rural affairs. Village life was thus peaceful in general but sometimes disturbed by the autocratic actions of the headman or the harassment by the tax-collectors as we saw before. Even so, the villagers would not suffer a despotic *gāmabhojaka*. They would take the law in their hands. For instance, when once a headman intrigued with a villager's wife he was seized by the lock of hair on the top of his head, dragged into the courtyard and thrown down as he cried, "I am the headman." He was thrashed till he fainted and made to remember the lesson.¹ If he was congenial, he could be left free, surrounded by comrades enjoying in dances and music and favoured by the king.² On the whole it would seem that the village was a self-governing unit.