“In some respects, the legal system of ancient India was theoretically ahead of that of today.” – John W. Spellman Summary: The ancient Aryan rulers of India faced political, economic and social problems in many respects, similar to those faced by modern British statesmen and social reformers, and their solutions, According to all the evidence of history, were far more satisfactory to the people as a whole than anything. what modern Europe has found. The freedom and general happiness that the British people have gained with the help of the world`s richest parliamentary institutions and incomes can hardly be compared to what Indians enjoyed in the Aryan pallor before and after the fifth century AD – the period we consider the Dark Ages. The Indo-Aryan constitution, built by the highest intelligentsia of the people on the basis of village communities and not wrested from warlords and landowners recalcitrant by centuries of fighting and civil wars, guaranteed the Indian peasant owner not only ownership of the land, but also very considerable autonomous powers. From 300 to 1192 AD, India is considered the most developed country in the world, its GDP equivalent to 25% of global GDP, followed by China, which accounted for 15% of global GDP. This tremendous development is impossible without a very strong judicial system during this golden age, on the contrary, some foreign historians and jurists have felt that there was no “rule of law” in ancient India, if so, what was the system of judicial administration that existed at that time and what “norms” (laws) of ancient Indian society helped to achieve such a level of human civilization. To respond to these prepositions, it is necessary to go beyond Western distortions beyond India and conduct impartial investigations into the surrounding social facts recorded in ancient texts. Keywords: Dhrama, Vyavahára, Charitra, Rájasásana, Puranas, Smiritis, Surtis, Prangnayya, Paraadivivaka or Adhyaksha, Danda, Sabhasada, Sabhyas, Samstha, Arthai-vivada, Himsa samudbhava vivada, divyas, sabhyas, etc. The history of the judicial system in India can be divided into III stages, (i) judicial system in ancient India, i.e. pre-Islamic invasion (ii) judicial system in the Middle Ages, (iii) judicial system under British rule. We will begin the first stage of our discussion.

India has the oldest judicial system in the world. No other judicial system has an older or higher pedigree. But before describing the judicial system of ancient India, I must issue a warning. The reader must reject the colossal distortion of Indian jurisprudence and the legal system of ancient India by some British writers. I will give a few examples. Henry Maine described the legal system of ancient India “as an apparatus of cruel absurdities.” An Anglo-Indian jurist remarked the following about what he called “the oriental habits of life” of the Indians before the British appeared in India: “It (British rule in India) is a record of experiments undertaken by foreign rulers to govern foreign races in a foreign country, to adapt European institutions to Eastern lifestyles. and to make certain laws among the peoples of the highest authority, who had always associated the government with arbitrary and uncontrolled authority. Alan Gledhill, a retired member of the Indian civil service, wrote that when the British took power in India, “there was a lack of legal principles.” For Bernard Cohn, the old constitution described Indian history as ancient, static and theocratic. These claims are false. It is not for me to guess why they were made. They may be due to sheer ignorance or imperialist self-interest or contempt for Indian culture and civilization that was part of the imperialist worldview that dominated British lawyers, historians and thinkers at the height of imperialism. But the effect of this false statement, which has few parallels in history, has been to create a false image of the Indian judicial system in India and abroad.

These are the words of the Honourable Justice S. S. Dhavan High Court, Allahabad; It is true that the legal system of ancient India was much better and more mature, that impartial English historians themselves admitted its superiority. While others, as mentioned above, are distorted in their complete ignorance or with the aim of challenging Indian culture and thus dominating Indian civilization by giving a false impression about the social conditions of pre-British India. 1.2. The legal system in ancient India The concept of the Dharma that governed Indian civilization, from the Vedic period to the Muslim invasion of the king to his last servant, everyone was related to the Dharma, The word Dharma is derived from “dhr” to mean, receive, receive or nourish. Psychics often use it in close association with “rta” and “satya”. Sri Vidyaranya defines “rta” as mental perception and God-realization.