Local Government in Ancient India c13.14

c13.14

Gautama also makes the same statement: ‘They declare that an assembly (*pariṣad*, shall consist) at least (of) the ten following (members, viz.) four men who have completely studied the four Vedas, three men belonging to the (three) orders enumerated first, (and) three men who know (three) different (Institutes) of law’ (XXVIII. 49).³ Similarly, Baudhāyana: 'Four men who each know one of the four Vedas, a Mīmāṁsaka, one who knows the Aṅgas, one who recites (the works on) the sacred law, and three Brāhmaṇas belonging to three different orders constitute an assembly consisting of at least ten members' (I. 1, 1, 8).¹ The three different orders in the above passages mean those of the student, the householder, and the hermit, or according to some commentators, the ascetic, because hermits (*vānaprasthas*) cannot serve as members of *pariṣads*, as they live in the forest, while professed students are included because 'they are declared to be particularly holy in the *Dharmaskandha-brāhmaṇa*' (Bühler, *S. B. E.*, vol. XIV, p. 144 n.). Secondly, it is to be noted that all the three twice-born castes, the Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas, were represented on these assemblies, but the representatives must be such as 'follow the prescribed occupations' for the caste they belong to, as laid down by Manu. It would, therefore, be a mistake to suppose that the Hindu law-givers made the assemblies exclusively Brāhmaṇa in their composition. If there is any doubt on the point the following passages from Āpastamba will serve to clear it up. He says: 'It is difficult to learn the sacred law from (the letter of)