Local Government in Ancient India c9.s1.1

c9.s1.1

The North Indian evidence, valuable for its comparative antiquity, and its consequent anticipation of the growths reflected in the southern, is far more copious in its literary than in its epigraphic or monumental part. While the evidence as a whole is devoid of those definite and elaborate details by which we are enabled to draw a complete picture of the administrative machinery evolved and employed by local government in olden times, yet there is one unique feature in the northern material which gives us a valuable compensation for the deficiency, and serves to bring out the efficiency of the organization of these local bodies. That feature is the discovery of numerous seals and sealings issued by North Indian guilds or corporations in different localities and at various times. The earliest of these is a seal-die of terra-cotta discovered in the excavations conducted by Sir John Marshall at Bhīṭā, near Allahabad, on which he reads the legend *Śahijitiye nigamaśa*, ‘written in letters of the third or perhaps fourth century b. c.’ Sir John found the die at the foundation of a house which he accordingly designates as the ‘House of the Guild’, and remarks that ‘the house in which the seal was discovered may mark the site of the office of the *nigama* or corporation’ (*Arch. Surv., Annual Report*, 1911–12, p. 47). Four other sealings of guilds bearing the legend *nigama* or *nigamaśa* inscribed in Kuṣaṇa characters have also been discovered there, together with a fifth sealing bearing the legend *nigamasya* in northern Gupta characters.