Samiti

By Swami Harshananda

Samiti literally means ‘assembly’.

This is an ancient word used even in the Ṛgveda and seems to mean a meeting or a meeting place. It might have been an ad hoc assembly of people attended by learned men and others including the king. Whether it was a regular national assembly of a whole people, as suggested by some scholars, is a moot point. The word sabhā also might have meant the same.

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore