The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c23.16

v1.c23.16

Manu recognises only two ordeals. Later authors add several more and some admit the application of an ordeal to the plaintiff as well as to the defendant. The oath of a witness is virtually an ordeal, as the oath invokes divine power, which punishes the guilty. The oath is taken according to the caste of the witness. For example, a farmer swears by his cattle, etc. Or one may simply swear that a thing is so, and if his house burns up within a week it is a divine conviction of perjury. Later authors also prescribe that in ordeals a writing be placed on the head of the suspected man containing the accusation and a prayer, so that the divine power may understand the matter. The two earliest ordeals are those of fire and water (Manu, VIII, 114 f.). As the Sūtras do not notice ordeals, except for a general recognition of them as ‘divine’ proofs on the part of the late Āpastamba, and as the later writers Yājñavalkya and Nārada describe five ordeals, adding the ploughshare, scales, and poison, it is reasonable to conclude that Manu stands in time, as in description, midway between the two sets of authors and is the first to describe ordeals already known and practised. This is the judgment of Bühler and of Jolly¹, but the implication that the mention of *daiva* in older literature makes probable the existence of all the forms of ordeal mentioned only in later literature is not safe. Fire and water were first used, then come the elaborate trials with balance, etc., till eventually there are nine formal ordeals².