There can be no doubt that parties to a lawsuit in ancient Hindu law had a right to be represented by other persons. The question arises whether or not the representative referred to in the ancient texts correspond to the pleaders, advocates, vakils or attorneys of modern India. In other words, did ancient Hindu law have the kind of legal procedure in which the rights of the parties were safeguarded through the services of a class of experts, as is the case in present day India and in most other modern legal systems?

Looking at Hindu law as it became known to the West in the latter half of the eighteenth century, it did indeed seem as if the question was to be answered in the affirmative. Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws (1777), his translation of the Vivādārṇavasetu, did have a section (Ch. 111 § 11) explicitly called “Of appointing a vakeel (or attorney).” Its contents are as follows: