Local Government in Ancient India c13.115

c13.115

The most frequently mentioned type of assembly is the Sabhā, the assembly of the Brāhmans. The Sabhā seems to have been the governing body of a single village or the smallest group of villages and was thus the unit of the system of local government. The unit of the Sabhā was the *agrahāra*, the individual share in a Brāhman village. Corresponding to the Sabhā was the *ūrār*, the assembly of the general body of inhabitants of a village representing all the different castes, creeds, and communities. Superior to the Sabhā in the hierarchy of assemblies was the Mahāsabhā, the governing body of a group of villages (called *kūrram*?). Another type of assembly is known as *nagarattār* which was a sort of sectional assembly or guild of merchants and professionals, or perhaps a municipality or town corporation (no. 14 of 1906). Thus, while the Sabhā or *ūrār* was a village assembly, the *nagarattār* might have been a city municipal assembly. Some of the inscriptions speak of the assembly of 'the chief town' of a group of villages. No. 40 (*S. I. I.*, vol. I) mentions such an assembly of the middle-aged citizens of the town of Māmallapuram which made a new division of the land of the town. That it was a regularly functioning administrative body is also proved by the mention of the accountant of the town (*karaṇam*) signing the assembly's decree. No. 23 (ibid., vol. II, part I) mentions the assembly of the chief village of fifty villages. No. 1 (ibid., vol. III, part I) shows that a village by itself might for its growth and importance form an independent sub-division of a district (*koṭṭam*) and be distinguished by the special name (*taniyūr*) and ruled by its special assembly (called *gaṇattār*). In no. 16 (ibid.) the assembly of the citizens of a town grant a village and are attended by their Accountant. The town assembly is again referred to in no. 53 (ibid.). Above these village and town councils came the district assembly called *naṭṭār* (ibid.).