The concept of Local Self-Government, though not in the sense, in which it is understood today, was age old. Even in the pre-Vijayanagara days, local assem¬blies called “Urs” transacted all public business on behalf of the people inhabiting the villages. In the Brahmadaya villages or agraharams, however, assem¬blies known as the ‘Sabhas’ were functioning not merely as agencies for collecting taxes but were also redressing public grievances and exercising judicial functions. Local Self-government in India has a long and chequered history. The democratic features of Historical local assemblies have always had a great fascination for ancient Indian political institutions. Their discovery at the commencement of this century coincided with our fight for freedom and supported our claim to self-government. The Chola age in which such autonomous institutions flourished came to be looked upon as a golden age of local-government. The subsequent age viz., the period of the Vijayanagara Empire was considered to be a period of decadence so far local institutions were concerned. While the worst cities of India admit the existence of village assemblies, they are not prepared to concede that Indians were families with self-government in the higher rungs of the administrative ladder i.e. in subdivisions and districts. But we find in Chalukyas-Chola and Vijayanagara periods, assemblies known as Nadu and Mahanadu. The Nadu which was in charge of group of village, carried on all the functions in its jurisdiction that the village assembly did in the village, it appears, that the Nadu assembly was a live institutions all over the empire with certain exceptional regions where for some years anarchy prevailed on account famine or over taxation.