Talk:Panchayat (film)

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Is this true? ''The panchayat, though also used as the word for the officials of the town unit,was a system in india that involved a five village unit in which all villages have an appointed task or tasks. the villages are layed out like the 5 on a dice. One village might make carts, another would make baskets and barrels. The middle village was usually the biggest and was normally responsable for the storage of food and the residences/meeting halls of the governing officials. '' How many villages anywhere are "layed out like the 5 on a dice"? --Wetman 22:04, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * this might be true since panch in hindi stands for 5, however i have never come across such an arrangement which looks more like a ludo game than reality.--Idleguy 14:58, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

Well, the root of पंचायत (paṁcāyat) is पाँच (pāṁc, five), but in this case the "five" refers to five wise men. The idea being, a group of at least five or more people, not towns. And yeah, I believe the dice was merely a simile, not to be taken literally. I'm thinking of adding a note on Parsi panchayats here. I don't know if this would be unfair to other groups though. I think they are of significant importance to the Parsis - but the same could be said of any other group as well I suppose. Khirad 21:31, 17 September 2005 (UTC)