iPāňcālī /i— A Local Administrative Unit of Ancient Nepal (4supth/sup to 8supth/sup Century A.D.): An Inscriptional Overview

Licchavi kingdom was an ancient kingdom in Nepal, which existed in the Kathmandu Valley from approximately from ca. A.D. 300 to ca. 879. Centuries earlier at the start of the Buddhist era, a powerful republic known as Licchavi existed in what is today Bihar. It is to be mentioned here, some legendary sources from the Kathmandu Valley also describe the Kirātas as early rulers there, taken over from earlier Gopāls or Ᾱbhiras, both of whom may have been cow herding tribes. In the pre Lichhavi period a village administration existed in the valley of Nepal. In that village administration there were some local chief officials named iBrahmum, Shulham/i, iTepulam/i who maintained law and orders of the villages. In the Ᾱdī- Nārāyaṇa temple Inscription of Nepal there are 18 functionaries in which iBrahmum, Shulham/i, iTepulam /iare mentioned. These non sanskritic terms disappeared after sometime and replaced by sanskritic terms such as isvatalasvāmī/i and later idauvārika/i, a post which endured permanently in Nepal village administration. In the period of Aṁśuvarmā we see a significant change occurred in the use of land and its administration by the ushering in of the ipāňcālīs. Pāňcālī/i has been used in the sense of modern iPāňcāyet./i In ancient Nepal iPāňcālī/i was a village administration and iPāňcālīkā/i is the member of the administrative body iPāňcālī. /iIn this paper an attempt has been made to discuss about the meaning of the term ipāňcālī,/i its characteristics, responsibilities and roles in Nepal administration.