The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s1.t1.5

c10.s1.t1.5

And as the whole state was conterminous with the tribe or the village, there could not arise any differentiation of functions between the central and local governments. The "nation" and the "rural commune" were convertible terms. No matter whether tribal (i. e. national) or rural (i. e. territorial), these earliest village councils of the Hindus were the counterparts or replicas of the Homeric *agoras* and the *gemots* of the Tacitean *civitas*.²