Local Government in Ancient India c12.2

c12.2

LOCAL bodies in ancient India had also their 'Public works' departments. They are termed *samūhas* for the purpose in some of the Smṛtis. For the proper discharge of civic functions and the administration of the various interests of municipal life, an agreement was drawn up in writing forming the Memorandum or Articles of the Association, the members of which were bound to fulfil their legitimate part in promoting the manifold public works necessary for communal welfare. Deliberate violations of the agreement were severely punished either by banishment or confiscation of property. An attitude of either passive indifference to the agreement, or of opposition to it, was also punished by a heavy fine. Those who created disunion in the association were similarly dealt with. According to the *Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra*, 'Whoever stays away from any kind of co-operative undertaking shall send his servants and bullocks to carry on the work, and shall have a share in the expenditure but none in the profits' (II. i.).¹ The purposes for the promotion of which these municipal bodies were constituted embraced a wide area of useful activity which could not be left to the efforts of individuals, but was proper only for communal enterprise. They are thus enumerated by Bṛhaspati²: preservation and maintenance of public halls, temples, tanks, resthouses, wells for supply of drinking water to travellers, construction of water-courses and places of worship, protection against incursions of wicked people, and relief of the distressed. We thus find that these municipalities addressed themselves, not only to the ordinary material interests of communal life, such as sanitation and water-supply, but also to the interests of public and spiritual life by the provision of halls for public meetings and temples for public worship. They also organized the communal charities which embraced not merely the secular relief of the poor in times of famine and other calamities (*kulāyana-nirodhaś ca*) but also their religious or spiritual ministrations, which included the performance of purifying rites for the destitute and poor, viz. arrangements for the cremation of dead paupers, distribution of gifts among people desirous of performing religious acts, &c. Thus the sphere of the administration of Poor Law was widened so as to bring within its compass provision for the spiritual necessities in the life of the destitute as fixed by their Śāstras. In another passage Bṛhaspati includes financial support in aid of the idiot, the infirm, the blind, the orphan, the distressed, as also diseased persons and women among the legitimate purposes to which an association could apply its public fund. We should also note that the interests of strangers were not ignored.