Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.115

c5.115

The pasture-grounds, on the other hand, were more useful. On these grounds the cattle and goats were grazed.³ The people customarily entrusted their flocks to a communal neatherd as even now (cf. le fromageur of the Pennine Alps). These gopālakas or gopas and ajapālas led the herds to the pasture grounds, grazed them during the day and returned them to the owners in the evening.⁴ Or, as it sometimes happened, specially in the case of wealthy people, they kept the herds with themselves in a shielding by night and brought the produce to the owners from time to time.⁵