The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c8.94

c8.94

Âpastamba makes it perfectly clear that a regular system of local government had grown up by his time. He mentions village and town-officers. The jurisdiction of a town-officer covers a radius of a yojana (nearly eight miles) and that of a village officer a radius of a kos, nearly two miles. Within the area of his jurisdiction, an officer should be responsible for order and security and should himself recompense unaccounted thefts. The officers, according to Āpastamba, should be drawn from the first three castes.¹ The injunction does not square with the strict theory of caste and is not likely to have found a place in a Dharma Sūtra if something like it had not been followed in actual practice.