Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c14.64

c14.64

§ 50. This description of criminal procedure of Aṭṭha-kathā is in keeping with the general procedure of republican-system of justice as preserved in Sanskrit literature. In the opinion of the author of the Mahā-Bhārata, criminal justice in a republic should be administered by experts through the President (निव्रहः पण्डितैः कार्यः क्षिप्रमेव प्रधानतः),² that the Elders of the Kula Court (= Kulaka) were not expected to connive at an offence. Bhṛigu, enumerating different judicial authorities, implies that in the case of a *gaṇa* the deciding body was called Kulika and also Kula.³ Kātyāyana uses *Kula* in the sense of a jury.⁴ The Ashta-Kulaka thus would signify a judicial council of eight members, and not, as heretofore interpreted, 'Representatives of eight clans.'⁵