The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c9.s2.t1.96

c9.s2.t1.96

In the sphere of local government, the village is the unit. Every village seems to have had an officer, called Grâmâdhipati, who looked after affairs in general and was particularly concerned with the king's share of the produce. In Vedic literature, the office of Grâmanî is the goal of a Vaiśya's ambition.¹ The Mahâbhârata furnishes no indication of the caste of the Grâmâdhipati. In the Sabhâ Parvan Nârada counsels the appointment of five officers in each village,² but that may be a counsel of perfection. We cannot be certain that even the Grâmâdhipati was regularly appointed by the government. He might sometimes have been hereditary or marked out by village opinion for the office. According to the theory of the Śânti Parvan, groups of ten, hundred and a thousand villages should form the successive administrative divisions. Here theory may be reflecting facts in a rather idealised manner. Each head of a village or an administrative division should keep his immediate superior informed of all happenings and submit regular reports. The officers seem to have been paid in kind. For instance, the superintendent of a hundred villages should receive a large village for his sustenance while the officer of a thousand villages should enjoy the revenues of a small town as his remuneration. Such a practice would inevitably promote the feudal tendencies. From this scheme of local government towns seem to have been excluded. Each town is to have an officer to itself, a Sarvârthacintaka, one who thought or cared for everything.¹ For purposes of defence garrisons were to be stationed along the borders and in towns.²