Dr. Anupama Ghosh, Assistant Professor, History, Law School, Delhi Metropolitan Education, GGSIPU
ABSTRACT
Law and history are inter-twined. Rules, regulations and the laws governing a society have a deep connection with the existing culture, traditions and customs. History thus emerges as the foundation of understanding the development of the judicial ethos of a place. Thus, historical texts act as a rich repository of the history of the evolution of law and justice administration over time. In India the ancient period is synonymous with a rich corpus of literature comprising the Vedas, the Puranas, the Upanishads and the epics. This paper aims at studying the ideas of justice from two major Indian epics, the Mahabharat and the Tamil classic, Silapaddikaram. Separated from each other in time and space, the two texts have many interesting interpolations on the notions of dharma and karma, which were the guiding lights of life in ancient Indian society, and especially in the milieu of justice administration.
Keywords: dharma, karma, Mahabharat, Yudhisthir, Bhishma, Silapaddikaram, Kovalan, Kannaki
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