Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t5.120

c4.t5.120

Villages in those days were of two kinds according as the revenues yielded by them were enjoyed by an individual or by the State.³ The former were known as ‘bhogagāmas,’ and the persons who enjoyed the income coming therefrom were styled Gāmabhojakas. The term gāmabhojaka has generally been taken to mean the village-headman. The natural inference from this would be, then, that the person who enjoyed the right of revenue of his bhogagāma was also the headman of that village. But this does not seem to us to be wholly true. Not every gāmabhojaka was the headman of the gāma he enjoyed, and not every headman the gāmabhojaka. Since we are to return to this subject when discussing the local or village government proper, we may not go in details here. Suffice it to bear in mind that there were some villages which were called bhogagāmas. Those others which the king's officers visited for the purpose of collecting revenue are not termed as bhogagāmas. The former were thus grants, endowments or assignments given as reward of merit or as an act of favour from the king.⁴ The revenue coming therefrom was enjoyed by the respective individuals and, may be, those individuals had to pay a certain portion of their income to the central Government.