Hindu Administrative Institutions c10.s2.6

c10.s2.6

The judges were usually selected from among the lawyers who were invariably of the Brahmana community. As the custodian of *dharma*, the Brahmana was essential for the filling up of the judicial offices. Jayaswal writes: ‘Law proper and law ecclesiastical in administration tended to unite into one and unite in the hand of the Brahman judge. And the Brahman was fairly above the influence of the king.’² Even in the *Jātaka* literature of the Buddhists we find the *purohita* and the Brahmans as ministers of law and justice.