The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c21.47

c21.47

One of the most obscure topics of Indo-Muslim administration is that of rural justice. It is clear that there were Muslim judicial officers, Qâzîs and Mir Adls in towns but neither the Persian chronicles nor the Persian Dastûr-ul-amals, manuals of official regulations and procedure, nor the contemporary European accounts nor general literary works reveal the practices of civil adjudication in villages. The silence of our authorities, which are generally so full and detailed, indicates that the vast mass of Hindu population on the countryside was left to settle civil suits by itself according to time-honoured law and custom. This was probably one of the spheres in which old Hindu practice survived for long even outside the territories of Hindu feudatories. It would be particularly strong in tracts which, in spite of direct Muslim rule, managed largely to escape, Muslim influence. The hypothesis is borne out by the recent discovery of a Sanskrit judgment in Mithilâ.