KONGRE BİLDİRİLERİ
which also had tiers of governance, the Sassanid satrapy system allowed insulated units of government
to exist under an overlord. Unlike it however, the [west and central] Asian system did not expect the
combining units to conform to a single convention. There emerged layers of management within each
tier of social, ethnic or communal life leading to a variety of conventions for maintenance of records.
In South Asia, for example the local or village records were maintained by the community, known as
mirasi or bhand1 in local parlance, meaning custodians of heredity and hereditary rights. These people
performed the function of local historians, their records were maintained verbally; similar mechanisms
existed for other communal conventions and instruments of governance. An intermediate stage of
record keeping occurred at the level of the subordinate ruler, this too was often a verbal agreement of
terms with Khuts and Chaudhry; and then were the records of the overlord.
This complex form is what we have termed as a conglomerate s ]K[