Local Government in Ancient India c15.32

c15.32

The inscriptions regarding the heroism of the Indian 'village Hampdens' sacrificing themselves for the good of their communities are indeed too many to be noticed. We can only select some further typical examples. No. 1 of 1896 records how a rural hero sought to recover the village cattle seized by a king of the Western Gaṅga dynasty but unfortunately perished in the attempt. No. 199 of 1897 records the death of another warrior under similar circumstances. In fact cattle lifting seems to have been a most common occasion for the display of rural patriotism and military spirit. We have a number of records of a single year (1905) testifying to this particular variety of these heroic examples (e.g. nos. 288, 290, 291, 292, 298, 299, and 300). No. 7 of 1896, which is a Pallava record, tells of the death of a man's son and nephew in resisting a cattle raid upon his village; and, what is more interesting, the attached sculpture contains the representation on stone of one of the warriors figured with bow and arrow in his hands and himself pierced by the arrows of his enemy.