Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.183

c7.183

There is further evidence to support the existence of the *sabhā* and the emphasis put by the later sources on its judicial functions is of considerable import. The *Vājasaneyī Saṁhitā* has at least six mentions of the *sabhā* and its derivatives—*sabhya*, *sabhāsad*, *sabhāpati*, *sabhācara* and *sabhāsthāṇu*.¹ The *Maitrāyaṇī*² and *Taittirīya*³ *Saṁhitās* also refer to the *sabhya*, *sabhā* and *sabhāsad*. The *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* and the *Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa* refer to the *sabhā* at least nine times;⁴ the *Kāṭhaka Saṁhitā*,⁵ the *Kauśītakī Brāhmaṇa*⁶ and the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*⁷ also make mention of the *sabhā*, *sabhāpati*, and the *sabhāsad*. There are numerous references to the *sabhā* in later literature, but in these places the term means the council of the king and his palace or hall of justice. There may have been *sabhās* in the monarchical tribal governments also, but here we are concerned only with those political communities which were non-monarchical and where the *sabhā* was the supreme and only political institution.