I apologize if this is a silly question, but when does the term 'panchayat' begin to find usage in tamil (or broader south indian) history?
Is it evidenced in pallava, chola or vijayanagara inscriptions or literature? I am trying to understand how the term 'ur panchayat' (as distinct from gram panchayat) gained usage, and whether it is simply a more recent substitute for nadu or sabhai.
I guess you are more interested in the formation of local administrative bodies at the village level rather than the term itself. Am I right?
If this is the case, this certainly goes back to pallava era and probably earlier.
> > Is it evidenced in pallava, chola or vijayanagara inscriptions or literature? I am trying to understand how the term 'ur panchayat' (as distinct from gram panchayat) gained usage, and whether it is simply a more recent substitute for nadu or sabhai.
Hmm, I'd have thought it'd go back all the way to the Janapadas and probably the Indus Valley...
Or more to the point, to the formation of the first villages, wherever that was... Large kingdoms can't have formed first. It must have been local bodies.
Not that we have epigraphical evidence of that anywhere, of course!
But as for the term - "council of five" seems remarkably specific. I suspect that it would have been specific to some particular system, and the had panchayats everywhere. The term dates back at least 400 to 500 years. Beyond that, my off-the-cuff google-fu isn't upto the mark! :)
I am quoting at length from the Lecture of Swami Vivekananda.Volume 4Lecture - Modern IndiaIn this Lecture he talks how this idea of Self Governance in Villages is very ancient.It is very interesting that Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi hold similar opinionon this. Below given is an extract from his speech. The voice of the ruled in the government of their land — which is the watchword of themodern Western w orld, and of which the last expression has been echoed witha thundering voice in the Declaration of the American Government, in thewords, "That the government of the people of this country must be by thepeople and for the good of the people" — cannot however be said to have beentotally unrecognised in ancient India. The Greek travellers and others sawmany independent small States scattered all over this country, and referencesare also found to this effect in many places of the Buddhistic literature.And there cannot be the least doubt about it that the germ of self-government was atleast present in the shape of the village Panchâyat,(Literally, "government by five",in which the village-men sit together and decide among themselves, all disputes.)which is still to be found in existence in many places of India.......This idea of self-government never passed beyond the embryo state of the village Panchayat systemand never spread into society at large.In the religious communities, among Sannyasins in the Buddhist monasteries,we have ample evidence to show that self-government was fully developed.Even now, one wonders to see how the power of the Panchayat system of the principles of self-government,is working amongst the Nâgâ Sannyasins —what deep respect the "Government by the Five" commands from them, whateffective individual rights each Naga can exercise within his own sect, what excellent working of the power oforganisation and concerted action they have among themselves Regards,S.KarthikVandemataram