Skandapurana 1.4.42: adhyāyaḥ 44

Arjuna said: / I desire to hear about the kinds of ordeals, O lord of sages; / how should they be performed, and which ones here clearly reveal merit and sin?

Nārada said: / The oath, sacred water, the balance, poison, fire, the heated coin, / the [plow]share, and grain: the wise know these as the eight ordeals.

In matters without witnesses, where two parties dispute with each other, / in accusations of treason against the king, and likewise in reckless crimes,

if he does not know the truth as it really is, he should confirm it by an oath; / for oaths to establish the truth have been undertaken by great seers and deities.

A king of the Yavanas, having taken a false oath / before Vasiṣṭha, perished within a year along with his lineage, O Bhārata.

Whoever takes false oaths will go blind to the house of his enemy; / the wicked-minded man opens for himself the gate of Raurava hell.

Wrongdoers indeed think: 'No one sees us'; / yet the gods, residing as the inner witness of one's own self, watch them.

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

Knowing this thus, one should undertake oaths for the sake of truth; / for taking false oaths, a man is destroyed both in the hereafter and here.

Saying 'I speak this truth, wherefore you be my witness, / give me good or bad fruit', being purified, he should touch the feet of the sun.

Now, a brahmin [should touch] scripture, a kṣatriya a weapon, / a vaiśya touching cattle, and a śūdra his own teacher.

One may touch mother, father, or an elder; this is the common practice. / The nature of the sacred water was explained to you before, O son of Pāṇḍu.

The king should administer the sacred water to members of the castes, excluding the brahmin; / he should make that man drink [the water] of whatever deity he is devoted to.

To one devoted equally to all gods, he should administer that of the sun; / and he should bathe the weapons and missiles of all fierce deities.

Taking a vow, he should make him drink the fresh bathing water; / and he should declare the result of the sacred water within three times seven nights.

Hear further the procedure for the great ordeal that may be [undertaken]; / it dispels the doubts of all, and that ordeal is [given] in case of obstinacy.

Brahmā declared of old: 'It must be administered with a penalty [on the head]'; / and in the case of very fierce persons, it should clearly be administered without a penalty.

To pious men and those belonging to the castes, the king should not give [the ordeal] with a capital penalty; / the balance should not be given in high wind, nor fire in hot weather,

and [not] the dark [grain] to caste members, nor grain to those suffering from mouth disease.

Poison is not for those afflicted with leprosy or bilious disease, nor for brahmins; / all are entitled to the heated coin, which is lawful and free from danger.

Oaths and sacred water should not be [given] in a region stricken with disease and pestilence. / Some people here paralyze ordeals with demonic mantras.

Knowing those who counteract them, he should employ those who love righteousness; / discovering the wicked paralyzers of ordeals, the king should constantly

banish them from his realm, for they are thorns to the world; / the king should always make an effort to seek them out.

For they are of evil conduct, worse thieves than thieves. / He should assign those whose fault was seen previously to minor ordeals,

and not those who know righteousness and love righteousness, even in great matters, / in whom no false speech has existed since their birth.

A king should trust in their word alone, O Bhārata; / knowing a man's righteousness, a discerning king,

if causing [him to undergo an ordeal] out of anger or greed, becomes corrupted himself. / Therefore, an ordeal should be for the wicked; among them, [that of] the balance is spoken of first.

On very level ground, in the south-eastern quarter, / two pillars of sacrificial wood should be erected.

The measurement of the post is stated to be seven cubits: / he should bury two cubits of wood, and five cubits should be visible.

The space between the two should be made four cubits; / and a wise man should fix a sturdy piece of wood on top of the two posts.

He should have a balance beam of four cubits made, unblemished and firm, / of khadira, arjuna, śiṃśapā, or śāla wood.

Two hanging pans should be attached to the balance beam; / the balance should be made facing east and motionless in a clean place.

The balance may also be set up with stone pillars; / a merchant, a goldsmith, or a skilled worker in bronze,

who is impartial towards enemy and friend, should be appointed as the balance-holder; / and the learned chief judge should instruct the balance-holder:

'The realms recorded for the slayer of a brahmin, and those for the killer of a woman or a child, / those realms belong to the balance-holder who holds the balance falsely.'

In one pan, the wise man should weigh the well-fasted accused man; / in the second, he should balance clear, pale earth.

He should avoid bricks, ashes, stones, potsherds, and bones; / having weighed him first, he should then take him down from it.

Then, placing an inscription on his head, he should seat him with the inscription placed [there]; / and this mantra, spoken formerly by Svayambhū, is to be written on the leaf:

'You are the goddess, daughter of Brahmā, called by the name Tulā (Balance); / the syllable "tu" is remembered as always meaning weight, and the syllable "la" as lightness.

By the conjunction of heaviness and lightness, you are therefore called Tulā; / release this accused man from doubt, O auspicious one!'

He should place that man upon it again along with the leaf. / If, when weighed, he increases [in weight], he is pure according to dharma.

If he decreases [in weight], he is not pure; so know the knowers of dharma. / If the scale-cord snaps or the balance breaks, he should place the man upon it again.

In this way [there is] knowledge free of doubt, and it does not violate justice. / All of this should be performed on a Sunday, having worshipped the Sun.

Now next I shall explain the poison ordeal; listen to me:

And it is said to be of two kinds: [the ordeal of] a serpent in a jar, and likewise poison / of the horned [plant] or of the vatsanābha plant grown on the snowy mountains.

Seven barley-corns should be administered, or six, smeared with ghee. / After placing the written leaf on his head, he should place [the mantra] on the leaf thus:

"You, O poison, are the son of Brahmā, established in truth and righteousness; / protect this man from sin; through truth, become nectar for him!"

One by whom it is digested without spasms, free from vomiting and fainting, / he should be known as pure; so know the knowers of dharma.

Hungry, he should address as before the hungry serpent in a jar; / he should touch [it] for seven claps; if it does not bite, he is purified.

Listen from me to the fire ordeal as Brahmā declared it: / He should make seven circles in front of the sun god.

Circle should be made from circle towards the east—this is the rule; / the space from one circle to the next should be sixteen angulas.

Summoning [him] clad in wet clothes and having fasted, / he should cause all the ordeals to be performed in the presence of gods and brahmins,

before the eyes of the king or his appointed officer, / and likewise of learned brahmins and subjects.

In the western part of the day, facing east, with cupped hands, clean, / holding his two hands flat and even in another four-cornered circle,

they should examine scars and the like on the hands of that taker [of the ordeal]. / Then they should bind seven leaves of the holy fig tree on his two hands

with a new cotton thread, firmly. / Then, making it completely smooth, an iron ball of eight angulas,

weighing fifty palas, solid, heated by fire. / Having first performed worship of the Sun, he should then perform [worship] of the Fire

with red sandalwood and incense, and likewise with red flowers. / And he should bind the leaf upon the head of the accused,

accompanied by this mantra uttered by a brahmin: / "You, O Fire, are the four Vedas, and you are offered in sacrifices.

Because you purify sin, therefore you are called Pāvaka. / You are the mouth of all the gods; you are the mouth of the knowers of Brahman.

You reside in the belly of living beings; therefore you know the good and the bad. / Reveal yourself in matters of sin, be blazing, O Purifier!

Or, in cases of pure intent, become cold, O mighty one!" / Then the accused should slowly pace through the circles.

Having paced through, he should slowly drop the iron ball on the ground. / Afterwards, with the leaves removed from his hands, he should make him rub grains of unhusked rice.

Having seen that his hands are uninjured, he is pure according to dharma. / But if through fear he drops [it], or if [a burn] is observed under it,

he should make him take the iron again; this is the prescribed rule declared. / Now next I shall explain: hear the rule of the heated bean.

He should cause a vessel to be made of iron or copper, sixteen angulas [wide], / with a depth of four angulas, or he may make it of clay.

Then he should fill it with twenty palas of ghee and oil. / When it is well heated, he should drop a golden bean into it.

He should place the mantra prescribed for Fire upon the head of the accused. / With the thumb and fingers, he should take out the heated bean.

If it is free of blisters and the like, he should be known as pure beyond doubt. / I shall explain the plowshare ordeal; hear that, O Dhanaṃjaya!

An iron plowshare forged to twelve palas is prescribed, / eight angulas in length and four angulas in width.

He should place the mantra prescribed for Fire upon the head of the accused. / He should turn his tongue over three times, licking six angulas from it.

Cow's milk should be given, the best purifier of the tongue. / He should conduct an examination of the tongue; if it is burned, he is not cleared;

if it proves to be unblemished, he should know him to be purified. / Now I will speak of the eternal rule and law of the rice grain.

Grains of rice are to be given in theft, and never in any other case. / Having sprinkled the grains with water, he should leave them there overnight.

In the morning, they must without doubt be given to the accused to eat. / Then, facing east, he should spit [them out] onto a leaf three times: 44.75

either of a pippala tree or of a birch, but never of any other. / One must have those clean grains of rice taken from śāli rice, 44.76

placed in an earthen vessel, and standing before the Sun, / one should consecrate the pure grains of rice with this mantra according to dharma: 44.77

‘You are given by those who know the truth of dharma as the purifier of human beings. / Praised, O grain of rice, you ought in truth to protect [him] through dharma.’ 44.78

When they have been spat out while he stands before the Sun, / he on whose [grains] blood is seen, him one should declare impure. 44.79

Thus the eightfold divine ordeal which cuts away doubt about sin / takes place before Bhaṭṭāditya, O joy of the Kurus. 44.80

Likewise, those who know antiquity speak of the water-ordeal as being of two kinds: / one is remembered as the ‘water-hand’ [ordeal], and the other they know as immersion. 44.81

For as long as the discharge of an arrow and its retrieval are performed by a strong man, / for that long one should keep him immersed; if he survives, one should accordingly declare his purity. 44.82

Such is this holy place of Bhaṭṭāditya, O Bhārata; / it was produced on the face of the earth solely through my grace and the Sun’s. 44.83

Thus ends the forty-fourth chapter, named ‘Description of the Divine Ordeals,’ in the glorification of Bhaṭṭāditya, in the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa of the first [section], the Māheśvarakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses. 44.