A History of the Mahrattas v2.c59.43

v2.c59.43

¹ [The Panchāyat, or village council of five (or more) persons, has completely disappeared as a tribunal of civil justice; and the term is now applicable only to the caste-councils which deal with matters of dispute arising within the caste or with those caste-offences of which the law of British India takes no cognizance. The author’s views of the value of the Panchāyat system are doubtless to be attributed in some degree to the opinion of Mountstuart Elphinstone, who considered it ‘an excellent institution for dispensing justice and in keeping up the principles of justice, which are less likely to be observed among a people to whom the administration of it is not at all entrusted.’]