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196 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
bring the people to the Mote Hall, called Santhāgāra in the Pali texts. The procedure is perhaps analogous to that followed in the Kuru-Pañchāla assembly mentioned in the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brāhmana, in a palaver in Sakra's heaven described in the Mahāgovinda Suttanta, or in formal gatherings of the Chapters of the Buddhist Order referred to in the Vinaya texts. Members "are seated in a specified order. After the president has laid the proposed business before the assembly, others speak upon it, and recorders take charge of the unanimous decision arrived at." I If there is any disputation (savāda) the matter is referred to a committee of arbitrators. It is possible that technical expressions like āsana-prajñāpaka (seat-betokener), ñatti (jñapti, motion), salākā-gāhāpaka (ballot-collector), gana-pūraka (whip), ubbūhikā (referendum) found in the Rules of the Order, were adopted from those in use in the assemblies of the free tribes or clans.
1 faim. Up. Br. III. 7. 65. Camb. Hist. Ind, 1. 176 ; cf., Carm. Lec. 1918. 180ff.
