Local Government in Ancient India c15.15

c15.15

We have another piece of very interesting information regarding the maintenance of a Sanskrit college of a somewhat earlier date. This information is given in an extract from a set of five copper plates of a Pallava King Vijaya-nṛpatuṅga-varman given in the *Epigraphia Indica*, vol. IV. The extract is in Sanskrit. It records the gift of three villages to a college termed Vidyā-sthāna situated at Bahugrāma (identified with Bāhūr in French India). This college was maintained by the learned men of that village and is said to have been supported by them ‘like the Gaṅgā borne by Śiva on his matted locks.’ The college provided for instruction in what has been called the fourteen Gaṇas, which are supposed to be the fourteen divisions of Sanskrit learning made up as follows:—Vedas (4), Aṅgas (6), Mīmāṃsā (1), Nyāya (1), Purāṇa (1), and Dharma Śāstra (1). No.