Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c7.33

c7.33

The unit of government was, naturally, the village. Every village must have a headman. The successively higher areas of local government were formed by groups of ten, twenty, a hundred and a thousand villages. From the village headman upwards, every official must keep his immediate superior fully informed of all happenings and all crimes committed within their jurisdiction. Every town must have a "superintendent of all affairs, elevated in rank, formidable, a planet among the stars." He must have an army of spies to assist him in "exploring" the behaviour of the people. The whole sphere of local government was placed in charge of a minister at the head-quarters. A company of soldiers must be stationed "in the midst of two, three, five or hundreds of villages for the protection of the kingdom." It will appear that Manu prescribes salaries in kind or land. The village headman was entitled to receive articles such as food, drink and fuel which the villagers ought to furnish daily to the king. The lord of ten villages was entitled to one kula of land, that is, as much as would suffice for the maintenance of one family; the ruler of twenty villages to five kulas; the superintendent of a hundred villages got a village in Jagir as the medieval Mughals would have called it. The lord of a thousand villages was entitled to the revenues of a town.¹