248 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
some tie of kinship between the different grades of society 
became confined no doubt to the hilly tracts where whole com- 
munities of the same tribal status still dominated the country. 
But strong traces of the same system continued to exist even 
among the dwellers in the open country. enon ary Pe nied 
was mixed. The primitive Gonds were ‘‘ swam 
‘foreigners ” from Upper India. Yet they seem to “aie adopt- 
ed the position held by their Dravidian predecessors. They 
made no attempt to dominate the tract entrusted to them, or 
to obliterate subordinate tenures and gather in their own hands 
the whole administrative control. They too came under the 
customary code of the hepsi of which the Panchayat system 
was omy head and front 
Settlement by Panchayat is an essential characteristic 
of ce tribal life. It figures very prominently in Macpherson’s 
i t 
‘‘ like manner consult with the Heads of Tribes and assemble, 
‘““ when necessary, the entire population of the federal Group. 
“The Patriarch or Abaya of a branch of a tribe aided by the 
‘* Heads of Villages hen he consults, and co-operating with 
‘‘ the chief Patriarch of whose councils he is a member, contri- 
The same prominence of Panchayats coupled with weakness in 
the authority of the natural tribal Heads is found among the 
Mundas (see para. 20 above) and is ined an incident natural 
to every primitive tribe. 
This being so, it throws considerable li on the 
system of administration under Haihaibansi rule to find that 
Panchayats also occupied a very prominent ae therein. 
Vans Agnew tells us that Panchayats in the province of Chhat- 
tisgarh “ are of very ancient date ’’ and after referring to their 
prevalence under the Maratha Government he continues “ As 
in some measure connected with Panchayats it is proper to 
