A Chaupal (Hindustani: चौपाल or چوپال), or chopal, is a community building or space in the rural areas of North India and Pakistan.[1] It is the hub of community life in villages, especially for male inhabitants. In smaller villages, a chaupal can be a simple raised platform that is shaded by a large tree, typically a neem, banyan or pipal fig tree. In larger villages, the chaupal may be an elaborate structure that also doubles as a community guesthouse (or mehmaan khana).[2][3]
Indian and Pakistani panchayats (village administrative bodies) usually function and hold hearings in the village chaupal. Indian villages have a strong social norm of village exogamy, and the chaupal is often also the site where the groom's party are received and hosted when "a daughter of the village" is married.[1][2]
Chaupals are constructed and maintained using community funds, sometimes collected in the village using community donations (known as चन्दा, چندا, chanda).[2]
... Chaupal plays a very important role in the village life ... at the intersection of the two main streets ... a banyan or pipal tree ... panchayat are held at the chaupal ... Villagers sit at the chaupal, smoke, play cards and do other things ... barat/janet which comes from the boy's village is lodged at the chaupal ...
... This common fund sustained certain aspects of the social life of the village; it had formerly paid for the upkeep of the chaupal or guest house in which villagers offered hospitality to visitors, passersby, and, most important, for events such as the wedding of a daughter of the village ...
... the public well, which served as a meeting place of the womenfolk during day-time and the Chaupal, a local guest house, where the villagers gathered in the evening to while away time in smoking and gossip ...