Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c10.7

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).