The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t12.1

c11.t12.1

The principle of centralization that was observed in the management of the army and the navy was manifest also in the administration of public finance and other branches of civil government. The village was, as we have seen, the unit for purposes of military organization. It was the unit for revenue and police purposes as well. The member at the lowest step in the bureaucratic system was known as the *gopa*. This magistrate-collector was placed in charge of five or ten villages and was ultimately responsible to the *samâhartâ*, the collector-general. As the rural limb of the imperial civil service, it was the duty of the *gopa*⁴ to maintain the boundary marks not only of villages, but also of fields, gardens, roads, pasture lands, assembly halls, irrigation works, cremation grounds, charitable houses, temples, groves and bathing places.