Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c41.170

c41.170

§ 285. The laws of Paura, alluded to in the general term Grāma or Township, and the laws of Jānapada, as we have seen in the last chapter, are recognised in the Codes of Hindu Law. They were really the resolutions of these bodies. They had the force of law. The law courts enforced them against offending members. The resolutions regulated primarily the conduct of the corporate bodies and their business *inter se*. They were called Samaya, 'law or resolution agreed upon in an assembly' (*sam+ay*). These *Samayas* are called in Manu and Yājñavalkya¹ '*Dharmas*' or Laws. We may recall here that according to Āpastamba, the oldest writer on Dharma yet discovered, all laws originated in *Samayas*.²