The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s4.t4.1

c9.s4.t4.1

Now, *śreṇîs* had their own judicial tribunals. The craftsmen had thus the privilege of being tried by the jury of their own peers. In the matter of legal decisions, if we may take Brihaspati³ as a narrator of actual facts, even court practice had to yield to the opinion of gilds. Corporations were “invested with the power to decide law suits”,⁴ and their meetings were declared to be “resorts for the passing of a sentence”.⁵ As such, gild courts may have had jurisdiction over cases affecting the community at large and not solely over their own disputes. But it is to be observed that the judicial system of the Maurya Empire for which alone we have some reliable evidence does not have a place for gilds as public tribunals.