Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c15.6

c15.6

The Pāli texts of the times also throw light on village planning on similar lines. First was the arable land of the village, beyond which lay its common grazing grounds or pastures [*Jātaka*, I. 388] for its herds of cattle [III. 149; IV. 326] or goats [III. 401], whether belonging to the king [I. 240] or the commoner [I. 194, 388]. The villages employed a common neat-herd whose duty was to pen the flocks at night or to return them to their owners by counting heads [I. 388; III. 149]. He was called *Gopālaka*, the protector of the flocks [V. 350]. The pasturage was changed from day to day [*Aṅguttara Nikāya*, I. 20].