The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c11.33

Language: English

c11.33

According to the Aṭṭhakathâ, the judiciary consisted of a graded series of courts, each of which must find the accused guilty before he could be punished. The Viniccaya Mahâmattas formed the first court. Then came the Vohârikas or lawyer-judges; Sûtradharas or masters of law; Aṣṭakula or council of the eight; Senâpati, Uparâja and Râja.⁴ The passage is intensely interesting but it is not corroborated anywhere else in Buddhist literature. The arrangements it indicates are rather complicated and there is no means of knowing how they worked in practice. The Aṭṭhakathâ adds that the decisions of the Râja were recorded in a Paveni-patthakân.

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