State and Government in Ancient India c19.5

c19.5

In India also we find that an authority like the *Manusmṛiti* recognising the use of the force, strategem and *dharaṇa* by the plaintiff as a normal means of redress, even when the law courts had been established.¹ Even a jurist like Nārada disapproves of force only when the claim is doubtful and the king's permission is not taken previously.² The wergeld which the Dharma-sūtras (*c.* 400 B. C.) prescribe for the murder of the different classes of individuals also shows that for a long time even murders were not regarded as offences against the state but as simple torts, where mere compensation had to be given to the relations of the party murdered.