The main aims of the administration of justice are two-fold: the search for truth and the attempt to make people abide by the rules of law. In ancient times, according to Vinogradoff, more emphasis was laid on solving problems than on the search for truth. Justice was administered by the King and Manu and Narada have compared the position of the king to that of a surgeon. The Mahabharata says that the king who is also the one who dispenses justice should not deviate from the path of truth and he should be a cultured person with an intellectual bent of mind. The Naradiya Dharmasastra states:
Judicial procedure has been instituted for the protection of human race, as safeguard of law and order to take from kings the responsibility for crime committed in their kingdoms. When humanity was strictly virtuous and veracious, there existed no quarrels, nor selfishness. Virtue having become extinct among them, judicial procedure has been established, and the king, having privilege of inflicting punishments, has been instituted judge of lawsuits.
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