History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.117.1

v4.c63.117.1

The court so far described (i. e. where the king or the chief justice appointed by him presided) was the highest court. But other tribunals were recognized in the smṛtis and digests. Yāj. I. 30 and Nār. (I. 7) state³⁷⁴ that law-suits may be decided by village councils (*kulāni*), corporations (*śreṇi*), assemblies (*pūga* in Yāj., *gaṇa* in Nār.), the judges appointed by the king and the king himself, each later one being superior to each preceding one. The first three were practically arbitration tribunals like the modern *panchayats*. The several words here require explanation and they have been differently interpreted by different digests. Medhātithi on Manu VIII. 2 explains these words at great length. Acc. to him 'kulāni' means 'group of relatives' and also (acc. to some) 'impartial persons' (*madhyasthapuruṣāḥ*) and '*gaṇa*' means 'builders of houses and mansions or brāhmaṇas dwelling in maṭhas'. Acc. to the Mit. and V. P. p. 29 'kulāni' means 'an assembly of the relations, agnatic and cognatic, of the litigants'; acc. to the Sm. C. it means 'the agnates of the parties'; acc. to Aparārka it means 'husbandmen'. It appears likely that 'kulāni' means officers who presided over a group of eight or ten villages and who were granted the produce of one *kula* of land as their salary. Vide Manu VII.