Local Government in Ancient India c7.26

c7.26

Nārada introduces in X. 2 a new term *pūga*, which the *Vīramitrodaya* has interpreted in three senses, viz. (*a*) companies of traders and others, (*b*) associations of persons differing in caste whose mode of subsistence is not fixed, and (*c*) riders on elephants, horses, &c. Yājñavalkya (II. 31) has also used the term, and the *Mitākṣarā*¹ explains it as the assembly of the co-inhabitants of a village or town of different castes and occupations, as distinguished from the *śreṇī*, which is the more limited assembly of persons belonging to a common craft or occupation, whether they be of the same or different castes. The *Vivādaratnākara* explains it as a ‘guild of merchants and others’.