Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c10.105

c10.105

Of course appearance may be misleading, just as there is no fire in the glowworm although it lights up like fire. Liars may produce the impression that they are speaking the truth and truthful men may be suspected of falsehood. Documents may be forged and ordeals may be eluded; for this reason the judges cannot believe in appearances and must strain all their acumen (yukti) to come to the bottom of the affair (Nār. I, 1, 30, 40, 68-73; 1, 238 f.). How even a holy man may be suspected to be a thief is exemplified in the story of the pious Māṇḍavya (Nār. I, 1, 42) which is related in the Mah. Flying robbers concealed themselves and their booty in his hut. The police found the booty and took the holy man to the king who impaled him as a robber, but later, as he was still alive, set him free and asked for forgiveness. In the Mṛcch. a suspicious utterance, which the plaintiff (saṃsthānaka) lets slip, is at once recorded on the floor. The unjust sentence against Cārudatta is the result of a whole line of points of suspicion dexterously pieced together, among which the possession of the ornaments, apparently the stolen ones, plays the chief part.