Chapter 255 - Description of rules relating to disputes and different kinds of ordeals

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

[Full title: Description of rules relating to disputes and different kinds of ordeals (divyapramāṇa)]

Fire-god said:

1-2. There should be five or three witnesses such as those who are ascetics, munificent, born in noble families, truthful, virtuous, honest, having progeny, wealthy and regular in performing the pañcayajña^[1]. They may all belong to the same jāti or varṇa^[2] or from all (the castes).

3-7a. Those who are not suitable to be witnesses are women, old men, children, cheats, intoxicated, lunatics, injured, actors, heretics, men of the writer caste, those having defective sense organs, those that take food from degraded persons, relatives or friends or enemies (of the persons contesting the dispute) and thieves. All people are deemed to be witnesses in cases of thefts, violence and rashness. A virtuous man accepted by both the parties may be a witness. A person that refuses to answer the questions relating to a loan in which (interest) at the rate of ten per cent (has been allowed) should be made by the king to pay the full amount (together with interest) within forty-six days. The vilest person that does not depose the facts even though he is aware of them, is (considered) as equivalent to the sins of false witnesses and is also liable for similar punishment.

7b-10a. The witnesses (of the plaintiff as well as the defendant) should be questioned in the presence (of the parties) (as follows): “A person making a false statement would incur all (the sins) that would accrue to the sinners, deadly sinners, incendiaries and the murderers of women and children. You also know that the few good deeds that you had done in hundreds of your previous births, would befall that person whom you defeat by fraud.”

10b-13. In the case of conflict of evidences (among the witnesses), (one should accept) the statements of the numerous. (If the statements of the witnesses of both the sides) are equal, then that of the virtuous (should be accepted). In the case of conflict (among the views) of the virtuous, the statement of more virtuous should be accepted. That person whose witnesses make the truthful declaration, would become the winner. That plaintiff whose (witnesses) are different (from the above), his defeat is certain. When a set of witnesses have deposed, if more virtuous men or double (the previous number) make statements against that, the previous witnesses become false witnesses. Then the forgers and (false) witnesses should be punished separately.

14-15. The punishment would be double that of the (fee for) litigation. A brahmin (witness in similar circumstances) should be banished (from the country). A person that conceals, on account of his ignorance, the statements of evidences heard from others, should be fined eight times. A brahmin (in similar circumstances) should be banished (from the country). A false statement may be made only when a brahmin (stands) to be capitally punished.

16-19. If a property has been accepted after mutual consent of two parties, the loan-bond should be endorsed by the witness in the presence of the creditor. That bond should bear (the details such as) the year, month, fortnight, date, name, caste, one’s own clan, and the name of one’s fellow-student, one’s own name and that of the father etc. When the bond has been completed, the debtor should enter his name in his own handwriting (and also write), “I, so and so, son of so and so, fully agree to the statements made above.” Then the witnesses also should write their names after (having written) the names of their fathers (and write) “I, so and so, son of so and so, put my name as a witness”.

20-21. An unlettered debtor should cause (the writer of the deed) to write his assent. A witness (that does not know how to read and write) (should cause his assent to be written) by another witness in the presence of the other witnesses. Then the scribe of the deed should write “I so and so, son of so and so, being requested by both the parties have written this deed” and then write the deed.

22. A deed that has been written in the handwriting of the mortgager is valid even without the attestation by the witnesses, except in (cases) where undue compulsion had been made.

23. The debt mentioned in a deed has to be discharged by the three men (the debtor, the son or grandson). A mortgage remains in force until the pledge is not redeemed.

24. A new deed has to be written when the old one has been taken abroad or the original writing has been forged or lost or erased or seized or torn or mutilated or burnt.

25-27. One should record in his own hand, things that are explanatory of ambiguous terms, on the back of the deed, such as total, receipt, investigation, indication, relation, addition and means. The creditor should endorse all that he has received from the debtor with his own mark. A deed should be destroyed after paying the debts and another deed of release should be executed. It should duly be attested by the witnesses, if the original one was also made in the presence of witnesses.

28-31. The balance, fire, water, poison and holy water are the divine ordeals (to test) one’s innocence. These ordeals (should be instituted) in cases of great offences when the accuser agrees to undergo punishment. Or one may be made to undergo the ordeal, and the other to undertake the agreement to undergo punishment. They may be made to undergo an ordeal even without the agreement in cases of treason and sin. One should not carry the ploughshare, the balance, or the poison for matters of less than a thousand (coins). In the case of treasons one should always agree to carry (these ordeals to show their) innocence. The balance and other (ordeals) are instituted in the case of (matters) exceeding one thousand and the holy water (is instituted) even for minor (offences). If it is lesser than that and the innocence has been established in the ordeal, one should pay fifty (coins). If the offence has been proved, one has to be punished.

32. (The accused) that has bathed together with the dress and observed fast should be called up and made to carry all the ordeals in the presence of the king and brahmins.

33. The balance is for women, boys, the aged, the blind, the lame, brahmins and the sick. The (ordeals of) fire, water and seven yava^[3] (weights) of poison are for the śūdra.

34. (The accused) that is resorting to the balance is weighed by those conversant with balances. After the balance comes to rest, line is drawn and (the accused) is taken off.

35-37. (The accused should begin the ordeal thus): “The Sun, the Moon, the Wind, the Fire, the Sky, the Earth, the Waters, the Heart, the god of Death, the Day, the Night, the two Twilights^[4], as well as the god of Virtue know the acts of man! O Balance! You are the abode of truth. You were created by the gods in olden days. Speak the truth. O Auspicious one! Deliver me from suspicion. If I am a sinner, O mother! Then lead me downwards. If I am pure then take me upwards.” Thus one should address the balance.

38-42. One should mark the hands of a person that has rubbed rice, and then place seven leaves of the holy fig tree (on those hands) and (fix them) with a string wrapped as many times. (Then he should be made to utter as follows): “(O Agni!) O Purifier! You reside in all beings. O Truthful one! speak the truth like a witness about my good deeds and sins.” After he has said this, (the judge) should place a red-hot, round ball of iron weighing fifty palas on both his hands. After he has taken that, he should walk slowly through the seven circles. The inner space of the circle is known as sixteen aṅgulas (four finger breadth). After he has released the fire and rubbed rice (between his hand), the one that is not burnt gets (freed) as innocent. If the ball falls in between or if there is doubt, he should carry it again.

43-45a. (One should say as below in the water ordeal): “You are the most holy among the holy. O Purifier! You purify the accused. O Varuṇa! (You) protect me with the truth.” Having addressed (the water) thus, one should enter the water holding onto the thighs of a man standing in water upto his navel. His innocence would be established, if one bringing back an arrow simultaneously discharged, finds him fully dived (into the water).

(In the case of the ordeal of poison one should address the poison as follows):

45b-47a. “O Poison! the son of Brahmā: One established in truth and Virtue! Deliver me with your truth from this curse. You become ambrosia for me.” After having said thus, he should take the śārṅga^[5] poison that is got from the Himalaya mountain. His purity should be declared if he could assimilate (the poison) without vomitting.

47b-50. (Alternatively), one should collect the waters for bathing dreadful gods after having worshipped them. (He) should proclaim (that he has not done the crime) and drink three handfuls of that water. He should be deemed undoubtedly pure if no dreadful malady afflicts him within fourteen days. Truth, vehicles, weapons, cattle, grain and gold, the feet of the gods and preceptors and the consecrated tanks are the easy oaths proclaimed for minor matters.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

These are the five obligations that a person has to discharge daily—the act of the religious instruction, offering water to the manes, oblations for the gods, oblations to the goblins and entertaining the guests.

[2]:

The word jāti denotes the castes in general and the word varṇa denotes the four principal castes.

[3]:

A kind of grain.

[4]:

In the morning and in the evening.

[5]:

The poison got from the śṛṅga plant.