Local Government in Ancient India c8.5

c8.5

¹ The above account is on the lines of the lucid exposition of Hopkins in the *J. A. O. S.*, vol. XIII, pp. 72–81. I have not entered here into the vexed question, which is irrelevant to my present purpose, of the origin and development of these social classes and industrial groups, or how far they were rigidly differentiated from one another in functions and their spheres of interests. It is to be understood that the Vedic period comprises not merely that of the Saṃhitās, but also that of the Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads. The early Sūtra literature is not included.