Local Government in Ancient India c16.8

c16.8

These two types of political institutions were co-existent in the villages of India. The Sabhā was the assembly of the Brāhmans in which other castes had no place. But, though the principle of its formation is communal, its actual working and functions proceed upon the territorial principle. As has been abundantly demonstrated in the evidence adduced, the Sabhā was the supreme governing body of the village, but the village was not, of course, inhabited by the Brāhmans alone, but by people of other castes as well. We have already seen from one inscription referred to above how in the composition of the so-called villages other castes found their natural and necessary place. Every village, therefore, was bound to be a heterogeneous composition, but governed by a homogeneous body. Thus the Brāhman Sabhā is to be understood as a wider body than that limited and close corporation called the caste. It is communal in origin and structure, but is governed by the contrary principle as regards its functions.