The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c10.85

c10.85

The Jâtaka stories already alluded to make it clear that a kingdom was divided into provinces or districts. Princes were often appointed to govern them. Below this administrative division stood the village, then, as now, the unit of society. Village habitations were surrounded by fields and jungles (I, 215; V, 46). Some villages seem to have been fairly large. Physicians go to villages in search of medical practice (III, 202, 204). There is mention of a village which paid a revenue of 1,00,000 (III, 229), another which contained 1,000 smiths families (III, 281). In another village a Brâhmaṇa family worth eighty crores thought it worth their while to take up their abode. The kingdom of Videha is said to consist of 16,000 villages (III, 365). But our ignorance of the exact size and population of the territory makes it impossible to calculate the average extent of a village. The majority of villages are likely to have contained an heterogeneous population, but there were others inhabited exclusively or mainly by members of a single caste or followers of a single occupation. There is mention of Brâhmaṇa villages and Brâhmaṇa farmers (II, 368; III, 19)