व्यवहारमयूख (नीलकण्ठ भट्ट - पश्चिमी भारत की हिन्दू न्याय-संहिता एवं व्यवहार कोष)

S. 1. 1. 9-10
V. p. 1 ll. 6-32 ] MEMBERS OF COURT 5
'Śabda' means the science of words (i. e. grammar); 'abhidhāna'
(means) a lexicon. Kātyāyana says:
There merchants should be appointed to listen (to the evidence) and
to decide what is just.
'Tatra' (means) 'in the court'. Bṛhaspati (p. 279 v. 15) says:
(The king) should appoint his own truthful man (servant) who will be
subject to the control of the sabhyas for summoning and looking after the
witnesses, the plaintiff and the defendant.

• This (officer) should be a śūdra. To the same effect is Vyāsa:
  The king should appoint as sādhyapāla a strongly built śūdra, who
  helps (in arriving at) the truth (by summoning witnesses &c.), who holds the
  post hereditarily and who acts under the orders of the sabhyas.
  Yājñavalkya (2. 3) says:
  A king who cannot, owing to pressure of (other) work, look into the
  causes (of litigants) should appoint (to administer justice) a brāhmaṇa
  learned in all dharma (law) along with sabhyas.
  Bṛhaspati (p. 278 vv. 6 and 8) declares the duties of the king and the
  presiding (judge):
  The presiding (judge) is to declare (the decision), the king is to
  punish (to execute the punishment), the sabhyas to investigate the causes,
  the accountant is to count the money (or to cast figures) and the scribe is
  to write down the (legal) proceedings.
  The same author (Bṛhaspati p. 279 v. 16) says:
  The king should sit facing the east, the sabhyas facing the north, but
  the accountant should face the west and the scribe the south.
  Yājñavalkya (2. 30) speaks of determining agencies other than the royal
  court:
  In matters of judicial proceeding among men each preceding one (out of
  the following), viz. the (judges) appointed by the king, the pūgas, the
  śreṇis and the kulas, is superior (in authority).
  The words 'nṛpenādhikṛtāḥ' mean 'the prāḍvivāka and others.' 'Pūgāḥ¹'
  (means) the 'assembly of men living in the same village, earning their living

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1 For detailed explanation of pūga, śreṇi and kula, vide notes to V. M. pp. 12-14. Pūga was
somewhat like a village panchāyat, śreṇi was a guild of persons belonging to the same caste
and pursuing the same calling, such as a guild of oilmen or weavers. 'Kula' means the kind-
red of the parties constituted into a court. Nārada (I. 7) also says that kula, śreṇi, gaṇa, the
judge (appointed by the king) and the king were the sources of justice, each of superior
authority to the preceding one and Bṛhaspati as quoted in the Vīramitrodaya (p. 40) says
that kula, śreṇi and gaṇa may investigate all causes other than those of sāhasa (heinous wrongs
in which an element of force is involved).

• P. 5 (text)