Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s5.24

v1.c13.s5.24

Punishments by ordeal were common in India from the earliest times. The classical canonists have laid down minute regulations about ordeals.³ When we come to the seventh century A.D. we find that, as Yuan Chwang relates, there were four kinds of ordeals in the country. "These are by water, by fire, by weighing and by poison. In the water ordeal the accused is put in one sack and a stone in the other, then the two sacks are connected and thrown into a deep stream; if the sack containing the stone floats, and the other sinks, the man's guilt is proven. The fire ordeal requires the accused to kneel and tread on hot iron, to take it in his hand and lick it; if he is innocent he is not hurt, but he is burnt if he is guilty. In the weighing ordeal the accused is weighed against a stone; and if the latter is the lighter the charge is false, if otherwise it is true. The poison ordeal requires that the right hind leg of a ram be cut off, and according to the portion assigned to the accused to eat, poisons are put into the leg, and if the man is innocent he survives, and if not the poison takes effect".⁴