Indian Knowledge Systems as a Source of Legal Terminology in India: A Study of Legal Semantics

Abstract

Abstract Language and law are intertwined. Legal institutions create special terminology to define rights, duties, obligations, authority, procedure, responsibility, punishment and justice. Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Persian, Arabic, regional Indian languages and English have shaped India's legal lexicon since ancient to modern era. Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) are also important in the history of legal terminology. The lexicon of classical Indian writings covers justice, government, dispute resolution, evidence, property, debt, inheritance, punishment, social duties and many more. This article analyses IKS as a source of Indian legal language from a legal semantics perspective, focusing on several essential semantic processes such as expansion, narrowing, specialisation, polysemy, semantic shift and translation describing the words like Dharma, Nyaya, Vidhi, Vyavahara, Danda, Achara, Pramana, Sakshi, Rina, Vibhaga, Stridhana, Aparadh etc. The article analyses these terms as historical equivalents of English legal terminology. Their meanings have expanded, specialised, shifted, translated and adapted in philosophical, social, political and legal contexts. IKS may improve Indian legal education by improving awareness of the historical and philosophical roots of the legal terminology.