+Dispute Resolution

Disputes

  • Sometimes the varNa affiliation of certain jAti-s were subject to disptues.
  • In marATha times, these disputes were called “grAmaNya”-s.

Decisions

Basis in shAstra

  • “In reaching their conclusions based on these Purānic narratives, the pandits were essentially trying to open new spaces by reading between the lines of the narratives, and the final verdicts became authoritative not so much by the strength of the arguments, but by the perceived authority of the persons rendering these verdicts.”
  • “These instances demonstrate to us the dynamics of decision-making based on the Sanskritic tradition, that at once claimed to be timeless and universal, and yet at the same time was deeply entrenched in specific temporal, geographic, social and political environments, that continuously shifted and led to the emergence of a bewildering mass of conflicting opinions seen Sanskrit and vernacular documents.”
  • “The texts exist only in the forms in which they are produced and reproduced, and the production and reproduction of texts is at all times a highly motivated activity.”
    • Example - Multiple versions of Kāyastha-dharma-dīpa with regards to the CKP question (See separate page).
    • “The motivations, real or suspected, are often clearly referred to in the available Sanskrit and vernacular documents, including dveṣabuddhi “hatred” and dravyalobha “greed” among Brahmins and others, and ostracism and fear of various kinds of reprisals by the different parties.”
  • “The Sanskrit-based knowledge was continuously created and negotiated within these complicated parameters.”

Reference to authority

  • The disputes would oft be sent to distant authorities (eg. dharmashAtra writers in kAshi or shankarAchArya-s) for resolution.
  • “There was an established pattern of either sending the locally unresolved Dharmaśāstric disputes to authoritative centers of Brahmanical learning like Paithan or Banaras for resolution, or inviting authoritative persons from such centers of learning to the region to resolve the local disputes. We have a number of such decision-documents relating to disputes in the Maharashtrian communities going back to the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, and this pattern continues into the subsequent periods until the coming of the British colonial rule.”
  • “On matters of dharma, including varNa and jāti, non-specialist administrative and legal functionaries of regional courts, lacking in Sanskrit knowledge, deferred to specialist Brahmins living in places like Paithan and later Banaras. Dalmia describes Banaras as a “supraregionally recognized” locus of juridical authority (Dalmia 1996: 322–3). The brahmasabhā would issue a decision, recorded in a document called a vyavasthā-patra (‘document (patra) bearing the decision (vyavasthā)’) or vijaya-patra (‘document spelling out the victory (vijaya) (of the authoritative claim”(siddhānta)’).169 The disputants would carry out the injunctions of this document, and their local political authority would not object." [AV2011]

Local opposition

“Such verdicts, though accepted by the communities at a given time and place, were eventually subject to dispute and repudiation, if the perceived authority of the verdict-givers eroded by the emergence of new circumstances.”

Enforcement

  • “The surviving historical documents indicate to us the political-executive power that the Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa behind this decision (about CKP-s). Vad (1911, 287 fr.) not only provides the text of the order issued by the Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa, he also gives a long list of 196 names of individuals and localities to whom copies of this order were sent and these individuals were advised that any violations of this order would lead to stiff penal ties. Without the backing of the executive authority of the Peshwa, the nirṇayapatra would have remained ineffective.”
  • “Religious authorities like the various śaṅkarācāryas also issued nirṇayapatras that began with a statement of the high standing of the office and ended with a stamp that reads mahānuśāsanam varīvarti.” Example after a long list of adjectives: “srīguru-bhakti-parāyaṇeṣu sakalaśiśya-vr̥ndeśa-kalyāṇābhivardhakāśīḥ-purah-saram anuśāsanīyam idam.”