Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c40.64

c40.64

Pura meant the Capital (§ 253). Samūha is a well-known constitutional term in Hindu Law. Kātyāyana, for instance, defines pūga, which according to the accepted interpretation means a 'guild', as the 'samūha of merchants and others.'² Brihaspati, the lawyer, describes bodies already known to us to have been assembly-ruled organisations,³ *e. g.*, pūga, gaṇa, saṃgha, as samūhastha vargas (§258) or 'bodies incorporated'.⁴ Mitra-miśra quotes a text based upon Bhrigu which calls grāma, paura, gaṇa, and śreṇi, 'vargins' *i.e.* what Brihaspati has as 'samūhastha vargas'⁵ [grāma here is not the village but the Village-Association as Chaṇḍeśvara the lawyer of Mithilā defines: Grāmo grāma-vāsi-samūhaḥ, p. 179]. Chaṇḍeśvara explains samūhasthāḥ by 'militāḥ', 'combined.'⁶ Kātyāyana speaks of separate laws of the samūhas.⁷ Samūha which ordinarily means a collection has, thus, a technical, constitutional sense—an organized body.⁸