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STATE AND ADMINISTRATION
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seems informally, with the regular servants of Government in the management of rural affairs. Sometimes, they rose high and obtained recognition at the courts of suzerains and feudatories.
Pancakula: Inscriptions from Western India, however, show that from c. 600 A.D. the village elders used to appoint a formal executive committee of their own. The Jain inscriptions also show a similar development in Rājasthana where the executive of the village assembly was known as pancakula. It, inost probably, worked under the guidance of a headman known as mahanta.1 The word pancakula has got a number of meanings, which have already been discussed elsewhere.
Somadeva refers to the Village tribunals2 also. Beyond this scanty information we have no detailed accounts of village administration in the Jain sources. XI. Revenue and Finance Administration:
The success of the Government of our period must have rested on the sound finance, for finance is said to be the very source of all achievements. The treasury of the king always serves an useful purpose in distress as well as prosperity.4 It is a sound government whose sources of revenue are abundant and items of disbursement are limited. The treasury should be full of precious metals like gold and silver and many other currencies.5 This treasury is the very life of the king. The king whose treasury is empty generally robs his subjects and then the kingdom is ruined.? Somadeva further stresses that it is the treasury and not the person of the king which is the real sovereign.8 He alone wins victory who has got wealth. Only he who has wealth is reckoned to be great and well-born. The wealth for the treasury should be acquired by lawful means, not illegally by bribes, etc. 10
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1 Jain Silalekha-sangraha, I, pp. 233, 249, 266. 2 Nitiva., p. 202, Sutra 22. 3 Nitivā., p. 27: : qa safafe use: 1 4 Ibid., p. 202: 1: agiz 7795€ TT7127ci 5 Ibid., p. 202. * Nitivā., p. 203: FIT e dai sitiad a TOTT: 1 ? Ibid., p. 203. 8 Ibid., p. 204: 131 a 7 atat 9 Ibid., p. 204. 10 Ibid., p. 183: 15 at FTFU #27 A TUTTI
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