[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [State and Government in Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949) › c19.s2 # State and Government in Ancient India c19.s2: Ancient Indian Conception of the Nature and Source of Dharma of Law State and Government in Ancient India c19.s2 - **Language:** English ### Ancient Indian Conception of the Nature and Source of Dharma of Law ### [c19.s2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949.c19.s2.1) The law courts in ancient India, whether official or unofficial, were administering the law. Let us see what was its source and nature. The Sanskrit word used for law, Dharma, has very wide connotation. It includes religious and ritualistic law as well as rules of morality and prudence. These were not usually enforced by the law courts in India. Dharma, for instance, required a householder to keep Agnihotra and to lead a pious life. Law courts did not move in the matter, if somebody did not follow the rules in these matters. Laws in ancient India were for a long time preserved only in tradition; they are expressly described by the Dharmaśāstra as customary rules, \*sāmayāchārika dharmas\*, or rules based upon conventions. Such of these rules as pertained to family and social life and personal laws, and created civil and criminal rights, were enforceable in law courts. \*Varṇāśrama\* rules and rules of personal and family law originally based upon custom were later embodied in Smṛitis. This made them a little inflexible for sometime. Society however was naturally changing and it saw to it that ancient but obsolete rules were replaced by current and acceptable ones embodied in new Smṛitis. ### [c19.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949.c19.s2.2) Besides administering the rules embodied in a part of the Dharmaśāstra literature, courts enforced \*jātidharmas\* (rules of castes) \*janapadharmas\* (local customs), \*śreṇīdharmas\* (bye-laws of guilds) \*kuladharmas\* (family traditions), in so far as they created civil and legal rights.¹ Most of this law was based upon tradition, which was changing along with social customs ; \*Varṇāśramadharma\*, which our governments and courts are described as enforcing, was not a scheme of life evolved and determined by priests in their interests, but contained rules which made a liberal allowance for the changes in the customary, civil and criminal law, as sanctioned by popular usage and moulded by state guidance. It was the duty of one of the ministers, called Paṇḍita by Śukra, to make a periodical survey to find out which laws are ancient and which modern, which of them are sanctioned by Dharmaśāstra and which though based upon that authority, are no longer valid and which of them have the approval neither of the Dharmaśāstra nor of popular usage. He was then to lay down a proper policy.² It will be thus seen that the laws which the courts administered represented a set of rules, which though embodied in Smṛitis to a great extent, also conformed to the actual social practice and were acceptable to the state. ### [c19.s2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949.c19.s2.3) ¹ १. जातिजानपदान्धर्मान्श्रेणीधर्मांश्च धर्मवित् । समीक्ष्य कुलधर्मांश्च स्वधर्मं प्रतिपादयेत् ॥ \*Manu\*, VIII. 41 ### [c19.s2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949.c19.s2.4) ² See \*ante\*, p. 172, n. 3 ### [c19.s2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949.c19.s2.5) In the ancient period India regarded her law (\*dharma\*) as sacred in origin as did ancient Greece, but it was substantially based upon custom ; it cannot be described as institutionalisation of the selfish interests of the Brāhamaṇas and Kshatriyas. Dharma of ancient India was not consciously made by law-givers or by a ligislature ; it was generally enforced by social approval or the dread of hell and not by the force of the state. It was not static ; it however changed not by the arbitrary will of a king nor the noisy method of legislation but by the slow and prolonged process of change in social customs and practices. ## Linked texts (1) - [Mānava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.manu.8.41) — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949.c19.s2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.altekar-1949.c19.s2) · Pramāṇa