This study of a complex rural society is based not only on survey data but on historical records, particularly the village notes′ of Bihar from the beginning of the century. Jha has classified the region into eleven categories on a simple-complex continuum by analysing the records of more than 5,000 villages. He concentrates on the modal styles of relationships constituting the primary level structures′ of villages - including family, share-cropping and class-differentiated relations.