[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955) › c14.78 # A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.78 A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.78 - **Language:** English ### [c14.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c14.78) Justice was administered by regularly constituted royal courts in addition to village courts and caste \*panchāyats\*. Usage, documents and witnesses were admitted as evidence, and where no human evidence was forthcoming, trial by ordeal was resorted to; sometimes titles to property were proved by the self-immolation of people who were ready to prove the title with their lives. Treason (\*rājadroham\*) was dealt with by the king himself and involved confiscation of property besides death as punishment. Fines and imprisonment were the common punishment for ordinary crimes, and Chau Ju-kua notes: ‘When any one of the people is guilty of an offence one of the court ministers punishes him; if the offence is light the culprit is tied to a wooden frame and given fifty, seventy, or up to an hundred blows with a stick. Heinous crimes are punished with decapitation or by being trampled to death by an elephant.’ - [Previous: c14.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c14.77) - [Next: c14.79](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c14.79) - [Up: c14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c14) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c14.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c14.78) · Pramāṇa