Jurisprudence in Ancient Bharath

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Dr. Ayyadevara Ananthakrishna Rao (B. 1943), is a M.A. (Litt.), LLB, CAIIB; M.A, M.Phil, Ph.D (Sanskrit), PGDCA from the Osmania University. In the Year 1964, got enrolled as Advocate on the Bar Council of A.P. High Court and had the privilege of serving as Junior Advocate for two years in the Chambers of Sri Duvvuri Narasaraju and Sri Triumbak Rao Deshmukh renowned Advocates of Hon'ble Supreme Court/High Court. He joined State Bank of Hyderabad in the year 1967 and retired as Chief Manager in 2002. He represented officers' community in banks as General Secretary at state and national level. Served as Director on the Board of State Bank of Hyderabad for six years from 1992 to 1998. After retirement from Bank Service, he pursued his studies and obtained doctorate in Sanskrit besides continue to volunteer his services in various Community Development Organizations.

A study of judicial system in ancient India is not an academic curiosity but a serious re-discovery of our heritage. Sadly, most educated persons including those from legal profession, take it for granted that our laws are totally the gift of the British. As a police officer myself, I had no chance of knowing the Indian jurisprudence till, by chance, my Sanskrit teacher Sri Pullela Sriramachandrudu presented a copy of his Telugu commentary on Kautilya's Arthashastra. It was a revelation to find that some of the concepts of law as we see now are mere modifications of the ideas from the earlier texts. Further perusal of books like Manusmriti confirmed my view that most of the concepts are but reproductions.

The present book "Judicial System in Ancient India" is a comprehensive introduction to the civil and criminal law in ancient India. It traces the origins of law from the Vedic times, analyzes the sutra literature and the smrti literature. There are cighteen main texts of smrti literature such as the Manusmriti, yajnavalkyasmrti, parasarasmrti, naradasmrti. These texts usually are in three sections the first section known as acarakanda, dealing with ethical conduct, the second section known as vyavahara kanda, dealing with jurisprudence and the third section known as prayascittta kanda, dealing with the penances for unethical or sinful conduct. This means that the texts on Dharmasastras deal with actions which come under the purview of law that can be enforced by courts and actions (ethical and unethical conduct) which do not come under the fold of enforceable law. The section called vyavahara kanda is the enforceable law. The topics of dispute (vyavahara sthanani) identified in this section cover almost all the topics which we see in our law texts today. It may be interesting to note that all shades of crookedness of modern times were also present in those 'good old' days and that they were well handled by the law makers. The present writer has covered all these topics.