 Each of these was governed by a "rajah" (king) and was subdivided into organisational units known as "nads".In turn, the "nads" were divided into "dēsams", which anthropologist Kathleen Gough considers to be villages.However, the early 20th-century historian Kavalam Panikkar states that the "dēsams" were themselves divided into "amsas", and that these were the villages.