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

Agni said: 

1-2. Thereshould 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 pañchayajña¹. They may all belong to the same jati or varņa² or from all (the castes). 

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

2. The word jati denates the castes in general and the word varna denotes the four principal 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 percent (has been allowed)should be made by the king to pay the full amount (together with interest) within fortysix 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), (oneshould 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 virtuousshould 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) witnessesshould 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 hcard 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-bondshould be endorsed by the witness in the presence of the creditor. That bondshould 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 debtorshould 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 alsoshould 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 debtorshould 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 deedshould 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 madc. 

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. Oneshould 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 creditorshould endorse all that he has received from the debtor with his own mark. A deedshould be destroyed after paying the debts and another deed of releaseshould be executed. Itshould 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 cascs 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. Oneshould not carry the ploughshare, the balance, or the poison for matters of less than a thousand (coins). In the case of treasons oneshould always agree to carry (these ordeals toshow 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, oneshould 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 fastshould 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 yava¹ (weights) of poison are for theshūdra. 

1. a kind of grain. 

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 accusedshould 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 Twilights¹, 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 oneshould address the balance. 

1. In the morning and in the evening.

38-42. Oneshould 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 heshould 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, heshould walk slowly through the seven circles. The inner space of the circle is known as sixteen angulas (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, heshould carry it again. 

43-45a. (Oneshould say as below in the water ordeal): “You are the most holy among the holy. O Purifier! You purify the accused. O Varuņa! (You) protect me with the truth." Having addressed (the water) thus, oneshould 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 oneshould address the poison as follows): 

45b-47a. "O Poison! the son of Brahmå: One established in truth and Virtue! Deliver me with your truth from this curse. You become ambrosia for me." After having said thus, heshould take the såranga¹ poison that is got from the Himalaya mountain. His purityshould be declared if he could assimilate (the poison) without vomitting. 

1. The poison got from the srunga plant. 

476-50. (Alternatively), oneshould 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. Heshould 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.