In a number of places in the suttas, there’s reference to a king sitting in judgement. This occurs at SN 3.7, MN 89, and DN 14. In each case we have the term aṭṭakaraṇa, in locative, together with nisīdati, to sit. While there is a great confusion in readings (aṭṭa, attha, aḍḍa, probably others) clearly we’re dealing with a court procedure.
Cone and CPD give “hall of judgement” for the meaning of aṭṭakaraṇa, a reading followed by Ven Bodhi. (I can’t find the term in the PTS dict. Also, I have briefly checked a couple of Chinese parallels, but can’t find anything decisive.)
On the face of it, this is an odd meaning. Karaṇa means “action, doing”, and I can’t find anywhere else where it means a place. The sources don’t cite commentarial support, and in fact I can’t find a commentarial explanation. The commentary for DN 14 uses the term vinicchayaṭṭhāne, which clearly means “place of judgement”.
It seems to me more likely that aṭṭakaraṇa simply means “making judgement” aka “judging”, or more generally “carrying out a legal case, i.e. litigating” and the idiom aṭṭakaraṇe nisīdati means “sitting in judgement”. The CPD acknowledges both of these meanings, but Cone considers all the references as part of “judgement hall”.
Elsewhere aṭṭa+√kṛ clearly stands for “litigating”; at Bi Ss 1 we have Ussayavādikā nāma aḍḍakārikā vuccati.
This even seems to be required by the sutta contexts. In SN 3.7 King Pasenadi, sick of the corruption he sees in court, says:
‘alaṃ dāni me aḍḍakaraṇena, bhadramukho dāni aḍḍakaraṇena paññāyissatī’
Translated by Ven Bodhi as:
‘I’ve had enough now with the judgement hall! Now it is Good Face who will be known by his judgements!’
(Good Face is an familiar and affectionate term of address, perhaps “my dear”; he’s probably referring to his son.)
Notice how the Pali has two phrases using aṭṭakaraṇa in instrumental, but the translation gives one as “judgement hall” and the other as “judgements”. True, the two instrumental uses are grammatically distinct, but it seems odd to assign each a separate meaning. I would suggest:
‘Enough with passing judgement today. Now my dear will be known by his judgement.’
This interpretation is complicated by a passage we find at DN 17 and DN 26. Here, rather than the very grounded and realistic accounts of court life, we have the supernatural Wheel of the Emperor, which flies all over the kingdom, making all submit before it, before flying back to the palace, where it stands:
antepuradvāre atthakaraṇapamukhe
Here the addition of pamukha suggests a physical place (“in front of”). But as you can see, the reading is uncertain, and attha is favored by the Mahasangiti. The meaning is unclear, as you can see by these two renderings by TW Rhys Davids:
DN 17: on the open terrace in front of the entrance to the inner apartments
DN 26: in front of the judgment hall at the entrance to the inner apartments
In both of these instances, Walshe has “as he was trying a case”. He notes that Rhys Davids omitted this phrase, but as we have seen, he does in fact include it, but translates differently.
One problem with all of these interpretations is that pamukha does not seem to be used in the Suttas in the sense “in front”. Rather, it means “chief, foremost”. Notably, it occurs repeatedly in these same suttas in exactly this sense: the “foremost” of foods, palaces, and so on. It would seem then to be similar to “High Court”. Rather conveniently, “court” also may mean a place or the people in the place, so we can have:
By the gate of the royal compound, at the High Court.
In any case, it seems unwise to base our interpretation on such an uncertain passage.