Local Government in Ancient India c13.21

c13.21

Some of the Smṛtis refer to assemblies of Brāhmans, but these were created by the king (*rājakṛta*) and not by the public bodies (*samūhakṛta*). It was the practice of the king in early times to establish in every city with gifts of free quarters and rent-free lands, a body of learned Brāhmans with a prescribed course of duties, mainly religious.¹ The Brāhman assembly thus constituted had primarily to attend to the moral and spiritual welfare of the people, besides observing their own duties (*svadharmaḥ pālyatām*), to assist them in the discharge of their daily, occasional, and optional religious duties, to officiate at ceremonies undertaken with a view to averting providential visitations and ensuring public peace and prosperity, and to give authoritative decisions on doubtful points.² @H Bṛhaspati. But the assembly was also entrusted with certain other secular duties embracing some of the important interests of communal life, such as protection of grazing grounds and water courses, looking after temples and places of public worship and the like. @H *Vīramitrodaya.* A passage in the *Vīramitrodaya* adds the further duty of feeding people found in a helpless condition in the city, and of preventing the export to foreign countries of such goods as may endanger the interests of the community.¹