State and Government in Ancient India c19.s1.9

c19.s1.9

The Kula court was this informal body of family elders.¹ Or alternatively, it may have been a court taking cognisance of quarrels arising in family units of ten, twenty or forty villages. The Gopa of the *Arthaśāstra* was in charge of such units of villages, and they might well have had an informal court of their own, consisting of family elders.