Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c19.6

c19.6

The voting resulted in favour of the proposed capitulation and the city capitulated. Now, where can we get greater details of this procedure of voting and majority? We have seen that the Buddhist Saṃgha was copied from the political Saṃgha. We have also seen that the example of counting votes in the Gaṇa is directly cited by the Buddha as a guide. Therefore, if we can get at the procedure of either of the two, the political or the religious Saṃgha, we would be having a picture of the common type. The institutions were contemporary, and in ordinary course, technicalities of procedure of deliberations would be common to popular bodies. But in the case of the Buddhist Saṃgha its foundation is known and its borrowing from the political Saṃgha is clear. The procedure of the Buddhist Saṃgha would be nearer the procedure of the parent Saṃgha, the Republic. If we eliminate the religious modifications, we can restore the common type. For this I reproduce the procedure of the religious Saṃgha, the very rules of which show that the terms and proceedings had already become technical before they were introduced by the Great Teacher into his Brotherhood. It will give us the details of the procedure of voting and majority.