On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s10: Social and Legal Matters
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s10
- Language
- English
Social and Legal Matters
v1.c8.s10.1
Our pilgrim next sums up the character of the Indian people.
v1.c8.s10.2
They are of hasty and irresolute temperaments, but of pure moral principles. They will not take anything wrongfully, and they yield more than fairness requires. They fear the retribution for sins in other lives, and make light of what conduct produces in this life. They do not practise deceit and they keep their sworn obligations.
v1.c8.s10.3
He then describes the judicial processes and modes of punishment
v1.c8.s10.4
As the government is honestly administered and the people live together on good terms the criminal class is small. The statute law is sometimes violated and plots made against the sovereign;
v1.c8.s10.5
when the crime is brought to light the offender is imprisoned for life; he does not suffer any corporal punishment, but alive and dead he is not treated as member of the community (lit. as a man). For offences against social morality, and disloyal and unfilial conduct, the punishment is to cut off the nose, or an ear, or a hand, or a foot, or to banish the offender to another country or into the wilderness. Other offences can be atoned for by a money payment.
v1.c8.s10.6
The narrative proceeds to describe the four ordeals by which the innocence or guilt of an accused person is determined.
v1.c8.s10.7
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 another, 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.
v1.c8.s10.8
Julien takes a very different meaning out of the text for the last sentence. He understood the author to state that the poison ordeal consisted in placing in the incised thigh of a ram "une portion des aliments que mange le prévenu", poisons having been previously spread over the "portion", and if the ram then died the accused was guilty, and if the poison did not work he was innocent. But this cannot be regarded as the meaning of the text (which is not, however, very clearly expressed). Our author's account of these trials by ordeal in India differs both as to the actual ordeals, and the mode of procedure with them, from the descriptions to be found in other works. Manu, for example, does not give either the weighing or the poison ordeal, but these are mentioned by other authorities.¹
v1.c8.s10.9
¹ Manu VIII, 114; Alberuni Vol. ii, p. 159.
Linked texts (2)
- Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit
- تحقيق ما للهند من مقولة مقبولة في العقل أو مرذولة — Arabic