Local Government in Ancient India c13.117

c13.117

Certain communal corporations or guilds exercised jurisdiction over larger numbers and areas. No. 342 of 1912 tells us of a meeting of ‘1,500 merchants of four quarters’ including Nāḍu, Nagara and Nānādeśī at which they decide upon converting a village into a Pattana. No. 3 of 1910 similarly speaks of a meeting of the merchants of eighteen towns on the north and south side of the Kāverī. Lastly an inscription of the Nellore district refers to a yet larger league of merchants comprising those of the Nāḍu, towns, hills, five Maṇḍalas and even foreigners.