Local Government in Ancient India c10.21

c10.21

As a necessary corollary to the above power the king had the authority to enforce by means of adequate penal measures the due respect for guild-laws, guild-compacts, or contracts and agreements entered into by individual members with their associations. Manu (VIII. 221) says: 'A righteous king shall apply this law of fines in villages and castes (*jāti*) to those who break an agreement'.¹ Again (VIII. 219). 'If a man belonging to a corporation inhabiting a village or a district, after swearing to an agreement breaks it through avarice, (the king) shall banish him from his realm'.² The agreement is thus defined and explained by Bṛhaspati: 'When (the people of) a village or province execute a deed of mutual agreement, the purpose of which is not opposed to the interests of the king,