The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.6

c10.6

As a unit of administration the town, known as *pura*, was necessarily the nucleus of a separate institution. In its corporate capacity, i. e., as a *municipium*, the *pura*³ went generally by two, or rather three, different names, — the *pûga*, the *gaṇa*, and the *nigama*. The *pûga*⁴ was a well-known organization in the days when the Buddhist *Vinaya* literature was being compiled. Nay, Pâṇiṇi⁵ was familiar with it. The municipal corporation was thus well established in pre-Maurya times. And, of course, Manu,⁶ Yâjnavalkya,⁷ the later lawyers and their commentators also lived in an age when the *pûga* was the centre and basis of an institutional activity. *Pûga* was often employed as a synonym for *gaṇa*, as we have noticed above.⁸