The Law Code of Yājñavalkya 2.7.2

Having thus stated the general framework of ordeals applicable to all ordeals, he now states the procedure for the ordeals beginning with the balance:

Mounted upon the balance by those skilled in holding the balance, / equalized with a counterpoise, and taken down after a mark has been made,

“You, O Balance, are the abode of truth, fashioned of old by the gods; / therefore speak the truth, O auspicious one, and deliver me from doubt!

If I am an evildoer, O Mother, then bring me down; / but if I am pure, raise me up!” Thus should he address the balance with the mantra.

By those who know the holding—that is, the weighing—of the balance, such as goldsmiths and the like, equalized—that is, made level—by means of a counterpoise such as clay, mounted upon—that is, having ascended—the balance, the accused or the accuser undergoing the ordeal, having made a mark—having marked with a chalk line in whatever position he stood upon the base of the weighing-pan at the time of equalization with the counterpoise—and taken down, should address—that is, pray to—the balance with this mantra: “O Balance, you are the abode of truth. Of old, at the beginning of creation, you were fashioned—that is, produced—by the gods beginning with Hiraṇyagarbha. Therefore speak—that is, reveal—the truth, the actual nature of the disputed matter, O auspicious, beautiful one! Deliver me from this doubt. O Mother, if I am an evildoer, a speaker of untruth, then bring me down; but if I am pure, a speaker of truth, then raise me up.” The judge's mantra for addressing the balance is stated in another legal treatise, whereas this one belongs to the person undergoing the ordeal. The sign of victory or defeat is understood from the very wording of the mantra, so it is not stated separately. Furthermore, the construction of the balance, which is established for the purpose of ascending and the like, has been clarified by Pitāmaha, Nārada, and others, as follows:

“Having cut a sacrificial tree accompanied by mantras just like a sacrificial post, / and having bowed to the world-guardians, the balance should be made by the wise. / The mantra addressed to Soma and Vanaspati should be recited at the cutting; / and the balance should be made four-cornered, strong, and straight. / And rings should be fitted at the three places according to need. / The balance should be made four cubits long, and the two upright posts above should be equal to it; / and the distance between the two should be one and a half cubits; / and two cubits of both posts should be buried in the ground. / And two cross-arches should likewise be constructed on both sides, / and they should always be ten finger-breadths higher than the balance-beam. / And two clay plumb-lines hanging downward should be made from the two arches, / tied with cords, touching the head of the balance-beam. / The balance should likewise be placed facing east, immovable, in a pure location, / having suspended the two weighing-pans on both sides. / One should arrange darbha grass pointing eastward in both weighing-pans; / in the western one he should weigh the performers [of the ordeal], and in the other, auspicious clay; / he should fill the basket on that side with bricks, stones, and earth.” / (PiSm 84–93)

And here there is an optional alternative among clay, bricks, stones, and earth.

“Examiners skilled in the balance and measures should be appointed: / merchants, goldsmiths, and metalsmiths likewise. / The balance must always be made level with the plumb-line by the examiners, / and water should be poured on top of the balance-beam by the learned experts; / that balance on which the water does not flow away is to be known as level. / Having first weighed the man and then taken him down, / he should always have the balance adorned with flags and banners. / Then, knowing the mantra, he should invoke the gods according to this procedure, / with the sounds of musical instruments and horns, and with perfumes, garlands, and unguents. / Facing east and joining his hands in reverence, the judge should then speak:” / (PiSm 94–99)

"Come, come, Lord Dharma! Enter into this ordeal,
Together with the guardians of the world and the hosts of the Vasus, Ādityas, and Maruts."
Having invoked Dharma onto the balance, one should then place his limbs.
Having placed Indra in the east and the lord of the departed spirits in the south,
Varuṇa in the western part and Kubera in the north,
One should place the guardians of the world such as Agni in the corner directions.
Indra is yellow, Yama is dark, Varuṇa has the luster of crystal,
Kubera has the luster of gold, and Fire also has the luster of gold.
Likewise, Nirṛti is dark, and Vāyu is praised as smoke-colored;
Īśāna, however, should be red—thus one should meditate upon these in order.
To the right side of Indra, the wise man should worship the Vasus:
Dhara, Dhruva, Soma, Āpas, Anila, Anala,
Pratyūṣa, and Prabhāsa—these are proclaimed as the eight Vasus.
Between the lord of the gods and Īśāna, likewise, the host of the Ādityas:
Dhātṛ, Aryaman, Mitra, Varuṇa, Aṃśu, and Bhaga,
Indra, Vivasvat, Pūṣan, and Parjanya is remembered as the tenth,
Then Tvaṣṭṛ, and then Viṣṇu, who though born last is not the least—
Thus are these twelve Ādityas proclaimed by their names.
West of Agni, they know the station of the Rudras:
Vīrabhadra, Śambhu, Giriśa of great renown,
Ajaikapād, Ahirbudhnya, Pinākin, Aparājita,
Bhavanādhīśvara, Kapālin, Lord of the clans,
Sthāṇu, and the divine Bhava—the Rudras are remembered as eleven.
Between the lord of the departed spirits and the Rākṣasa, one should arrange the place of the Mothers:
Brāhmī, Māheśvarī, Kaumārī, and Vaiṣṇavī,
Vārāhī, Māhendrī, and Cāmuṇḍā together with her host.
North of Nirṛti, they know the abode of Gaṇeśa.
North of Varuṇa, the place of the Maruts is spoken of:
Pavana, Sparśana, Vāyu, Anila, Māruta,
Prāṇa, Prāṇeśa, and Jīva—these are proclaimed as the eight Maruts.
In the northern part of the balance, the wise man should invoke Durgā.
They know the worship of these deities to be performed by their own names.
Having offered arghya and so forth in due order to Dharma, ending with ornaments,
One should arrange, after arghya and so forth, [the offerings] for the limbs, ending with ornaments;
One should arrange the attendance, beginning with perfumes and ending with food offerings.

And here, having made the balance adorned with banners and flags, having invoked Dharma into it with the mantra beginning 'Come, come', having presented [items] ending with ornaments such as a crown and bracelets, through the formula: 'I prepare guest-water for Dharma, namaḥ', and so forth—namely, guest-water, water for washing the feet, sipping-water, the honey-mixture, sipping-water, a bath, clothing, a sacred thread, sipping-water, and ornaments; having presented [items] ending with ornaments, beginning with guest-water, to [the deities] beginning with Indra and ending with Durgā, with their own names preceded by Om, ending in the dative case, and followed by 'namaḥ', following the order of ritual items; having offered perfume, flowers, incense, a lamp, food offerings, and the like to Dharma, one should offer perfume and the like to [the deities] beginning with Indra as before. And the perfumes and flowers in the worship of the balance must be made red, as Nārada says:

"With red perfumes, garlands, curd, barley cakes, unhusked grain, and so forth,
One should first worship the balance, and then worship the rest."

Since there is no specific mention of Indra and the others, the order of worship is that they are worshipped with red or other [flowers and perfumes] as available. And the chief judge should perform all this, as stated:

"Then the chief judge, a Brahmin who has mastered the Vedas and Vedāṅgas,
Endowed with learning and good conduct, calm of mind, free from malice,
True to his word, pure, skilled, devoted to the welfare of all living beings,
Fasting, wearing clean clothes, having cleaned his teeth,
Should perform the worship of all the deities according to the rules."

Likewise, a fire oblation should be performed by four priests in the four directions in a secular fire, as he says:

"Likewise, in the four directions, an oblation should be performed by masterers of the Vedas,
With clarified butter, sacrificial food, and firewood as oblation requisites.
One should make oblation with the Sāvitrī preceded by the praṇava and ending with svāhā."

The meaning is that having pronounced the Gāyatrī preceded by the praṇava, and having again pronounced the praṇava ending with the utterance svāhā, one should make oblations of fuel sticks, clarified butter, and boiled rice offerings, one hundred and eight times each. Having thus performed the worship of deities ending with the fire oblation, one should immediately thereafter write the matter under accusation upon a leaf together with the mantra to be stated, and place that leaf, once the accused person is purified, upon [his] head, as he says:

"Having written upon a leaf the matter for which he is accused,
It should be placed upon the head together with this mantra:"

And this is the mantra:

"The sun and moon, wind and fire, heaven, earth, water, the heart, and Yama,
And day and night, both twilights, and Dharma know the conduct of a man."

And this procedure, beginning with the invocation of Dharma and ending with the placing of the leaf upon the head, is common to all ordeals, as stated:

"One should apply this entire ritual of mantras in all ordeals,
And likewise arrange the invocation of the deities."

Thereupon, the chief judge should address the balance,

"And one who knows the scriptures should address the balance according to this rule,"

because of the traditional text. And the mantras have been shown:

"You, O balance, were created by Brahmā for the trial of wicked souls;
From the syllable dha you are the embodiment of Dharma; from the syllable ṭa you reveal the crooked man.
Because you sustain and make evident, therefore you are called dhaṭa.
You know the sins and good deeds of all creatures.
You alone know, O divine one, what men do not know.
This man, accused in a lawsuit, desires purification;
Therefore you ought to protect him from this doubt in accordance with justice."

The accused person, however, should address the balance with the mantra previously stated, beginning with "You, O scale". Immediately thereafter, the chief judge places the leaf that was on the head, having purified the accused person and positioned him in his proper place, onto the balance,

"He should place again upon it the leaf that had rested on the head,"

because of the traditional text. And he should keep him who has been placed on it in that very position for the duration of five vināḍīs. And one who is learned in astrology should conduct the examination of that time:

"An eminent Brahmin who knows astrology should conduct the examination of the time;
Five vināḍīs are to be understood by those skilled in the time of examination,"

because of the traditional text. A prāṇa is the time taken to pronounce ten heavy syllables; a vināḍī is six prāṇas. And it is said:

"A prāṇa is ten heavy syllables; six prāṇas make a vināḍikā; with sixty of them
A ghaṭī is formed; with sixty ghaṭīs a day; a month is made of thirty days."

And at that time, pure men should be appointed by the king to inspect purity or impurity. And they declare purity or impurity, as stated by Pitāmaha:

"Brahmins who are eminent, who speak the facts as observed, / who are knowledgeable, pure, and free from greed, should indeed be appointed as witnesses by the king. / Eminent witnesses then report the purity or impurity to the king." / Thus [states Pitāmaha].

And the cause for determining purity or impurity has been stated:

"If he increases when weighed, he is pure—there is no doubt. / If he remains equal or decreases, that man is not pure." / Thus [states Nārada and Pitāmaha].

As for the statement of Pitāmaha:

"One whose fault is small is known as equal; but one whose fault is great decreases." / Thus [states Pitāmaha].

Regarding that: although the smallness or greatness of the matter accused cannot be determined by the ordeal, nevertheless smallness is determined by it having occurred once and unintentionally, and greatness by it having occurred repeatedly and intentionally—thus the smallness or greatness of punishment and penance is determined. And when a snapping or breaking of the balance pan and so on occurs due to an unobservable perceptible cause, even then it is indeed impurity,

"Upon the snapping of the pan, the breaking of the balance beam, and likewise of the scale's iron hooks, / or upon the breaking of the rope or the snapping of the transverse beam, one should declare impurity in just the same way."

—on account of this traditional text. The 'pan' (kakṣa) is the base of the hanging tray. The 'iron hooks' (karkaṭa) are the two slightly curved iron pegs at the two ends of the balance beam that support the hanging trays, resembling crab pincers. The 'transverse beam' (akṣa) is the crossbeam supporting the balance, resting upon the two vertical pillars. When, however, the breaking of these occurs from a visible cause, then he should place him [on the balance] again,

"Upon the snapping or breaking of the hanging tray and the like, he should place the man [on the balance] again."

—on account of this traditional text. And then:

"And he should gratify the officiating priests, the family priest, and the preceptors with sacrificial gifts. / The king who causes this to be performed in this manner, having enjoyed delightful pleasures, / attains great renown and is fit to attain the nature of Brahman."

When, however, he wishes to keep the balance of the stated description just as it is, then, to ward off damage by crows and the like, he should construct a hall equipped with doors and so forth:

"He should cause a spacious, elevated, and bright balance hall to be constructed, / standing within which it may not be defiled by dogs, Caṇḍālas, or crows. / Right there he should install all the world guardians and other deities in their respective directions; / he should worship them at the three junctures of the day with perfumes, garlands, and ointments. / The king should make it equipped with folding doors, guarded by attendants, / furnished with earth, water, and fire, and not left empty."

Because of this traditional text. “Seeds” means barley, unhusked rice, and the like. || 2.100 || 2.101 || 2.102

Thus ends the procedure for the balance.