Studies in Ancient Hindu Polity (Based on the Arthashastra of Kautilya), Vol. I c13.5

c13.5

That व्यवहार means here a contractual relation or a contract is indicated by passage (b). It says that धर्म is based on truth, व्यवहार on evidence, and राजशासन on the king's order, while custom is determined by large bodies of people. In fact, witnesses were essential to testify to contracts, which were mostly verbal in those days, and this favours the adoption of the above meaning. Besides, the word has been used in the above sense in Manu—VIII, 163, 164, 167; vide also the *Indian Wisdom* by Monier Williams, p. 268, where the word has been taken to mean contract.