History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.91

v4.c63.91

The chief Judge was preferably to be a learned brāhmaṇa (Manu VIII. 9, Yāj. II. 3). Kāt. (67)³⁵⁴ and Śukra IV. 5. 14 prescribe *that*, if a learned brāhmaṇa cannot be had for the post of the chief judge, then a kṣatriya or a vaiśya who knows the dharmaśāstras may be appointed, but the king should carefully avoid appointing a śūdra as a judge. Manu VIII. 20 says that the king may prefer a brāhmaṇa who is not learned and maintains himself by the mere fact of his caste, but should never have a śūdra as the expounder of dharma and that the country whose king has a śūdra as judge to expound dharma comes to ruin as a cow sinks in mud. Vyāsa (q. in S. V. p. 65) is to the same effect. Manu (VIII. 10-11), Yāj. (II. 3:), Nār. (III. 4) and Śukra IV. 5. 17 state that the king should appoint at least three sabhyas (*puisne* judges or members of the court of justice) to associate with the Chief Judge in the disposal of suits (the idea being that three are the least number of sabhyas to be appointed). Kauṭ. (III. 1) prescribes that the courts called '*dharmasthīya*' should be manned by three judges called *dharmasthas* who should possess the qualifications and status of amātyas and that such courts should be established on the borders of the provinces, for a group of ten villages (*saṅgrahana*), for a district (*droṇamukha*, 400 villages) and provinces (*sthānīya*, 800 villages). Bṛhaspati says³⁵⁵ that the sabhyas may be seven, five or three. As in the case of the chief judge, the sabhyas should be preferably brāhmaṇas, but they may be kṣatriyas or vaiśyas. Manu (VIII. 11) and Bṛ. say that when in a sabhā three brāhmaṇas learned in the Vedas sit along with the chief judge appointed by the king that is like the *sabhā* of Brahmā or it is like a sacrifice. Yāj. II. 2, Viṣṇudharmasūtra III. 74, Kāt. 57, Nār. III. 4-5, Śukra IV. 5. 16-17 and others require the following qualifications in the sabhyas: they should be endowed with the study of the Vedas, should know dharmaśāstra, should speak the truth, should be impartial to friend or foe, should be steady, devoted to their work, intelligent, hereditary, proficient³⁵⁶ in arthaśāstra. Impartiality in the king and the judges is insisted on in the texts. Vide Vas. 16. 3-5, Nār. (I. 34, III. 5). The king was not to appoint as sabhyas those who were ignorant of the usages of the country, who were atheists and devoid of the study of śāstras, who were either puffed up, hot-tempered, greedy or distressed (Bṛ. q. in Sm. C.