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Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c10: Chapter III: The Sabha

Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c10

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English

Chapter III: The Sabha

c10.2

§ 12. There was another noteworthy constitutional organism in the Vedic Age and later. It was the Sabhā. It is described as a sister of the Samiti, one of the two daughters of Prajāpati.¹ This also was a popular body. Prayer for co-operation in the Sabhā shows that discord in the Sabhā assembly was as much disliked and dreaded as in the Samiti The

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¹ Atharva Veda 7, 12.

c10.4

सभा च मा समितिश्चावतां प्रजापतेर्दुहितरौ संविदाने ।
येना संगच्छा उप मा स शिक्षाच्चारु वदानि पितरः संगतेषु ॥ १ ॥
विद्म ते सभे नाम नरिष्टा नाम वा असि ।
ये ते के च सभासदस्ते मे सन्तु सवाचसः ॥ २ ॥
एषामहं समासीनानां वर्चो विज्ञानमा ददे ।
अस्याः सर्वस्याः संसदो मामिन्द्र भगिनं कृणु ॥ ३ ॥
यद्वो मनः परागतं यद्बद्धमिह वेह वा ।
तद्व आ वर्तयामसि मयि वो रमतां मनः ॥४॥

c10.5

Translation :—
(1) "May the Samiti and the Sabhā, the two daughters of Prajāpati, concurrently aid me. May he with whom I shall meet co-operate with me ; may I, O Ye Fathers, speak agreeably to those assembled.
(2) "We know thy name, O Assembly : *Narishtā* verily is thy name. May all those that sit assembled in thee utter speech in harmony with me.
(3) "Of them that are sitting together I take to myself the power and the understanding in this entire gathering, O Indra, render me successful."
(4) "If your mind has wandered to a distance, or has been enchained here or there, then do we turn it hither ; May your mind take delight in me !" [I have adopted the translation of the hymn as proposed in the Sacred Books of the East volume on the Atharva-Veda (xlii, 138), with the exception of the rendering of of *narishtā* which has been translated there as 'mirth,' and, alternatively, as 'most favourable to men' (p. 544).]

c10.6

Sabhā is called *narishtā* which Sāyaṇa explains as a resolution of 'many' that cannot be broken or violated (नरिष्टा; अहिंसिता परैरनभिभाव्या बहुवः संभूय यद्येकं वाक्यं वदेयुस्तद्धि न परैरतिलङ्घ्यम् अतः अनतिलङ्घ्यवाक्यत्वात् नरिष्टेति नाम ।). 'Hence from the inviolability the name is derived.' With reference to this name, the speaker wishes that *'all those that sit assembled in Thee, utter speech in harmony with me.'* Free discussion was thus held in the Sabhā, and a resolution of the Sabhā was considered binding on all and inviolable. Evidently, the Sabhā was almost as important as the Samiti.

c10.7

§ 13. It was certainly related to the Samiti, but its exact relationship is not deducible from the data available. Probably it was the standing and stationary body of selected men working under the authority of the Samiti. *Sabhā*, means, *lit.*, 'a body of men shining together.'¹ Those entitled to a seat therein were invested, so to say, with lustre. They are pointedly alluded to.² They were objects of special respect.³ The Sabhā had its p r e s i d e n t, called S a b h ā-p a t i.⁴ It seems there were 'E l d e r s' in the Sabhā. We meet with E l d e r s and 'F a t h e r s' of councils in other ancient bodies holding executive authority (§ 43). Reference to the "F a t h e r s" in the above-quoted hymn is probably to the Fathers or Elders in the Sabhā, a view which Sāyaṇa alternatively puts forward (हे पितरः पालकाः......पितृभूता वा हे सभासदो जनाः).

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¹ Cf. Jayarāma : सह धर्मेण सहिवां भान्तीति सभा । Pāraskara Gṛihya, iii. 13. 1.

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² AV. vii. 12; White Yajur, xvi. 28.

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³ Cf. W. Yajur-Veda, xvi, 24 : नमः सभाभ्यः सभापतिभ्यश्च ।

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⁴ See § 14, n. 2.

c10.12

§ 14. One function of the Sabhā is definitely clear. The Sabhā acted as the national judicature. The Sabhā is called 'T r o u b l e' and 'V e h e-m e n c e' in the Pāraskara Gṛihya.⁵ As 'trouble' and 'vehemence' were in store there for the culprit, the Sabhā seems to have acquired those names, like the present day appellation "Crimnal" of our Criminal Courts. In the Purushamedha of the Śokla Yajur-Veda, Sabhā-Chara, 'one going to the Sabhā,' is dedicated as a victim to Justice (धर्माय सभाचरम्, 30.6). Again, the Ṛig-Veda (X. 71 10) describes the friends of one who has come back successful from the Sabhā 'joyful' and 'delighted' and the man himself as 'free from blame:'

c10.13

⁵ iii. 13 : नादिनौमासि त्विषिर्नामासि । Jayarāma renders them as 'sounding' and 'shining' (तदनन्वेता दीप्ता) because of performance of justice (धर्मनिषवणान्). 'Trouble' and 'Vehemence' are Oldenberg's renderings in S. B. E. xxix. 362. If Jayaśīla's view be right, किल्वि would refer to the fire which, according to the law-books, was kept in the court-house and which is probably also indicated by the Vedic term *sabhya* for fire (Atharva V., viii. 10.5). See § 16, n. 3; fire was kept also in the Vidatha. सन्दि as 'sounding,' may point to the feature contributed by discussions.

c10.14

सर्वे नन्दन्ति यशसागतेन सभासाहेन सख्या सखायः।
किल्विषस्पृत्पितुषणिर्ह्येषामरं हितो भवति वाजिनाय ॥

c10.15

'The White Yajur-Veda mentions also people repenting of the sins committed in the Sabhā'

c10.16

The Jātakas preserve an old memorial verse, which says that the Sabhā which has no good people (संतो) is no Sabhā, that the people who do not speak out the Dhamma (justice) are not good people, that those who avoid personal sentiments and speak out justice are called the 'good people':

c10.17

न सा सभा यत्थ न संति संतो न ते संतो ये न भणन्ति धम्मं।
रागं च दोसं च पहाय मोहं धम्मं भणन्ता च भवन्ति संतो ॥*

c10.18

§ 15.

c10.19

In Vedic literature the expression *Sabhā* is used in several senses, for instance, to denote a hall, a house, the gambling hall, and the royal court. In our constitutional sense, there is only one late reference in the Ṛig-Veda, *viz.*, in X.71.10, noticed above. The rise of the Sabhā, therefore, is to be dated like that of the Samiti in the latest period of the Ṛig-Veda. Its career is co-extensive with that of the Samiti. Even during royal and imperial centralisation, as we shall see, the judicial Sabhā of the king preserved traces of its popular origin and retained some important popular features in its administration of justice.

c10.20

¹ यद्ग्रामे यदरण्ये यत्सभायां यदिन्द्रिये। यच्छूद्रे यदर्ये यदेनश्चकृमा वयँ यदेकस्याधि धर्मणि तस्यावयजनमसि॥ XX. 17.

c10.21

∗ Jātaka, v. 509. The first half of the verse is given by Vyāsa in his lawbook in the description of the legal *Sabhā* (Aparārka, Y., II. 4). Instead of *santo* ('the good') Vyāsa has *vṛiddhāḥ* or Elders, which shows that probably the *sabhā* was originally composed of Elders.

c10.22

§ 16. The Samiti and Sabhā were not the only popular institutions of the Vedic times. The religious life was organised through the **Vidatha assembly**,¹ which had existed even earlier² than the Samiti. It seems to have been the parent folk-assembly from which the Sabhā, Samiti and Senā differentiated, for we find the **Vidatha associated with civil, military and religious functions (Roth).³** The **Senā or the Army**, which was in early times the **nation-in-arms**, was regarded as a body by itself and evidently as a constitutional unit:

c10.23

¹ AV. I. 13.4. (Whitney translates by 'council')

c10.24

³ विदथस्य धीभिः चर्म राजानः प्रदिवो दधाथे, RV. I. 38 5; RV., 17. I. 4., 3.26.8. See also M. & K., *V. I.* on **Vidatha**.

c10.25

तं सभा च समितिश्च सेना च
(AV., XV.9.²)

c10.26

² RV. I. 60. (where fire is called the flag (Ketu) of Vidatha. Zimmer (p. 177) thinks, probably not correctly, that it was a smaller body of the Samiti (M & K).

c10.27

Much information about the Senā is not yet available, and we are here more concerned with the civil aspect of our Hindu polity.

c10.28

§ 17. In later times education was separately organised in **Charaṇas**, which were a sort of **Vedic Faculties**. The **Parishad or Convocation of learning** had evidently separated from the general national *Parishad* or *Samiti*. Economic life, similarly, was crystallised in trade-guilds and guildsmerchant whose existence is traced in the Jātakas and Dharma-sūtras. In post-Vedic times, national life thus expresses itself into various self-governing institutions, and, in doing so, it really carries forward the Vedic traditions of communal institutions.

c10.29

⁴ This and the reference in the Pṛithivī-Sūkta (AV. xii. 1. 56) conclusively prove that the Sabhā was a distinct institution like the Senā and that it was not the building where the Samiti met, as taken by some scholars.

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