Hindu Administrative Institutions c8.s4.31

c8.s4.31

The Pariṣad.—Mr. K. P. Jayaswal has made a notable contribution on the subject.² He quotes passages from the Atharva Veda wherein it is explicitly stated that the sabhā and the samiti are separate institutions. Both of them are described as the two daughters of Prajāpati.³ But it would be reasonable to assume that the samiti and pariṣad were identical. This is evident from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.⁴ The institution of samiti was not a long-lived one. It became practically extinct with the commencement of the period of the Jātakas (600 B.C.). But the word pariṣad occurs in different senses in the post-vedic period. It is principally an academy of science and then a royal court. Even in this latter sense its political function amounted to judicial matters only. In the traditional usage the term pariṣad meant an assembly of learned men to decide legal points and customs of the land.⁵