Lord Mahavira and His Times

SR No.: 011080
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kailashchandra Jain
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 427
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 255

Political Conditions and Institutions
235
the Federal Council are designated Gaņa Rājās. The composition of the Federal Council shows that the Federal states had equal votes and that the federation was based on terms of equality. Though the Mallas were not so great a political power as the Lichchhavis, yet in Federal Council, both had an equal number of members, i.e., equal voice. Leagues were naturally formed to oppose the great powers amidst whom they were situated, namely, Magadha and Košala. JUDICIARY
It seems that the Judicial administration of the republic states was remarkable, and the liberty of the citizens was efficiently guarded. A person was not declared guilty unless his crimes were proved by all the courts.
The Aţthakathāl throws light especially on the judiciary of the Lichchavis of Vaiśāli. A criminal was at first sent for trial to the officer called Vinichchaya Mahāmatta. If he found the accused innocent, he acquitted him but if in his opinion, he was guilty he could not punish him but had to send him to the next higher tribunal viz., that of the Sultūdhara. If hc considered him guilty, there were three other tribunals with similar functions viz., those of Atthakulaka, Senāpati, and Uparajā, each of which could acquit the accused, if innocent, but had to send him to the next higher tribunal is found guilty. The last tribunal, viz., that of the Rūjā, had alone the right to convict the accused, and in awarding the punishment, the Rūjā was to be guided by the book of precedents. Thus a person could be punished only if seven successive tribunals had unanimously found him guilty, and he was quite safe is but one of them found him innocent.
U.N. GHOSHAL” expresses doubt in the Judicial sysicin of the Lichchhavis described above. The first difficulty in accepting the above interpretation lies in the latencss of the Sinhalese tradition which has come down 10 is only as prescribed by Buddhaghosha who flourished some cight ccn:uries after the fall of the Vajji republic. Again, the very elaborare procedure described above for which there sccins to be no 1. JASB, VII (1933), pp. 993 €. 2. IHQ, XX, p. 331 [T; XXI, 1 fŤ,