Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c41.167

c41.167

§ 284. This conclusion derived from literature is confirmed by certain seals lately discovered at Basārh the ruined site of Vaiśālī. These seals remain learned puzzles in the pages of the reports of the excavation, without the data from literature we have noticed. They become intelligible in the light of the evidence adduced above. One seal bears the legend *Śreshṭhi Nigamasya* while another reads *Śreshṭhi—Sārthavāha—Kulika—nigama*; again another, *Kulika-Hariḥ* or *Prathama-Kulika-Hariḥ*.³ The seals ending with *nigama* are the seals of the mother association of Nigama or Paura. *Kulika* was a judge of the Paura as we have already seen⁴; *Prathama-Kulika* would be thus the first judge of the Paura Court. '*Śreshṭhin*,' 'president,' was evidently the General President. The seal of the '*Sreshthi Sārthavāha Kulika nigama*' legend represented the different sections or *Samavāyas* of the Nigama through their three chiefs. The separate seals related to the separate entities, the corporations sole, *e.g.*, the judicial seal of the *Kulika* judge.