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ASSOCIATE LIFE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 525
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emporia called Nigama.1 The affairs of a Gruma were controlled by officers styled Grameyika Ayutta2 who were apparently headed by the Gramani, Gramika, Grāmabhojaka or (Grāma) Mahattaraka. Lüders' (Mathura) Inscription, No. 48, gives the names of two such Gramikas, Jayadeva and Jayanaga. In Southern India we have the curious title "Muluda" applied to the head of a village. " The chief men of the Nigamas were the Gahapatis, the counterparts of the Gramavriddhas of villages. In Liders' Inscription, No. 1153, we have evidence of the corporate activity of a dhammanigama headed by the Gahapati. The Grama and Nigama organisation was the most durable part of the Ancient Indian system of government, and centuries of Scythian rule could not wipe it out of existence. The village and the Nigamas were also the nurseries of those ideas of associate life which found vent in the organisation of societies, committees, assemblies and corporations styled Goshthis, Nikayas, Parishads, 10 Samghas, etc., about which the inscriptions of the period speak so much. Not the least interesting of these institutions was the "Goshthi" which
9
3
8
1 In Pali literature Nigamas are distinguished from grāmas, villages, as well as from nagaras, cities which had strong ramparts and gateways (dridha präkāra torana).
2 1327.
3 1333,
4 48, 69a,
5 1200.
6 Ins., 1194. Cf Murunda lord (Saka). For the presence of Śakas in the far south, see Ep Ind., XX, 37.
7 Gahapati, house-lord, was a designation specially applied to the leading men of the gentry, the wealthy middle class, Kalyana-bhattiko, men accustomed to a good dietary. They are often distingnished from priests and nobles (Rhys Davids and Stede).
8 Lüders' Ins., 273, 1332, 1335, 1338,
9 1133.
10 125, 925.
11 5,1137.
