Local Government in Ancient India c4.6

c4.6

Nor, again, are the local bodies of ancient India the products of decentralization operating in the sphere of a central unitary State: such has been the origin of local governments in modern polity. The Indian polity, so far as it is possible to generalize in respect of regional zones of this character, was, therefore, in its final development, neither pluralistic nor monistic in its trend and type, but a balanced synthesis of three distinct and co-existing elements, the State with its jurisdiction as represented by the Daṇḍa, the individual on the Road to Freedom (*Mukti*), and the various intermediary groups, functional, local or voluntary (e.g. in various types of Eastern monachism), connecting these two poles by means of their own Dharma, their special Codes, and Customaries.