Local Government in Ancient India c13.11

c13.11

As regards the composition of these administrative boards we have some interesting evidence in some of the Smṛtis. Thus Manu states: ‘Whatever an assembly, consisting either of at least ten, or of at least three persons who follow their prescribed occupations, declares to be law, the legal (force of) that one must not dispute’ (XII. 110).¹ Again: ‘Three persons who each know one of the three principal Vedas, a logician, a Mīmāṃsaka, one who knows the Nirukta, one who recites (the Institutes of) the sacred law, and three men belonging to the first three orders shall constitute an assembly consisting of at least ten members’ (XII. 111).²