The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c8.57

c8.57

Gautama makes it abundantly clear that during his time witnesses were usually summoned in a case⁴ and that some rules had been framed to determine the admissibility of their evidence in particular cases.⁵ But his elaborate prescriptions on the character, qualifications and disqualifications of witnesses are so purely theoretical as to warrant no inference about actual practice. Gautama’s Twelfth Chapter, on Civil and Criminal Law, is full of details, but is not a statement of positive law. He seems to supply the model which he would like a code of law to follow. But it is permissible to infer from him that caste privilege had invaded public justice at innumerable points and that for the same offences different punishments were inflicted on members of different castes. The lot of a Śūdra might have been really hard.