History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.280
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.280
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Long lists of persons who are generally to be regarded as incompetent to be witnesses are given in Kauṭ. III. 11, Manu VIII. 64-67, Udyogaparva 35. 44-47, Yāj. II. 70-71, Nār. IV. 177-187, Viṣṇu Dh. S. VIII. 1-4, Bṛ. (S. B. E. vol. 33 p. 303 vv. 29-30), Kāt. 360-364 (q. by Aparārka pp. 669-670, Sm. C. II. pp. 77-78, V. P. p. 119). Manu VIII. 118 states the general grounds why oral evidence tends to be false viz. covetousness, infatuation, fear, desire of pleasures, anger, friendship, ignorance, minority. As the list of incompetent witnesses in Nār. is the longest,⁴⁹² that alone is set out here: one who has monetary⁴⁹³ interest in the parties or the subject matter of the suit (such as a co-sharer, creditor and debtor of the parties); a friend (or relative such as an uncle); associate (in undertakings); enemy; one who has already been held to have given false evidence; one charged with (or addicted to) sins; a slave; one who is in the habit of finding the weak points of others (or harming others); one who has no faith in religion; a very old man (above 80 years); a minor; a woman; an oil-presser; one intoxicated; a lunatic; one who is extremely inattentive; one distressed; a gambler; a village priest; one who undertakes long journeys (on the great roads); one who is a merchant engaged in sea voyages; an ascetic (who has renounced the world); one sick; one bereft of a limb; one who is the only witness; a brāhmaṇa learned in the Veda;
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one who does not perform the customary religious rites; an impotent person; an actor; an atheist; a *vrātya*; one who has abandoned his wife; one who has given up *agnihotra* (daily offerings into *śrauta* or *smārta* fire); one that officiates as priest for persons who are not entitled to perform vedic sacrifices; one who is an associate in eating food from the same vessel in which food is cooked (i. e. who is in commensality with a party); a former enemy (*arirau* as one word); a spy; an agnate; a cognate (or born of the same womb); one whose evil doings in former lives are seen clearly; a public dancer (*śailūṣa*, or one who makes his women actresses); one who lives by (i. e. buys or sells) poison; a snake-catcher; one who is a poisoner, an incendiary, a mean person (*kīnāśa*, or parsimonious person); the son of a śūdra woman (from one of a higher caste); one guilty of a minor sin (*upapātaka*); one fatigued; a desperado; one who has relinquished all attachments; a person who is penniless (through gambling or other extravagance); a member of the lowest (untouchable) caste; one leading a bad life; a brahmacārin who has not yet returned from his teacher's house; an idiot; an oil-seller; a seller of roots; one possessed (by a ghost or demon); one hated by the king; a weather-prophet; an astrologer; one who proclaims to the public the sins of others; one who has sold himself (for money); one who has a limb too little (e. g. having four fingers to the hand);
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one who lives on the immorality of his wife; one who has bad nails; one with black teeth; one who has betrayed his friend; a rogue; a seller of liquor; a juggler; an avaricious man; a ferocious man; an opponent of a śreṇi (guild) or gaṇa (association); a butcher; a hide-worker; a cripple; one excommunicated for a grave sin (like brāhmaṇa-murder); a forger (of documents or coins or weights &c.); one who employs incantations and drugs for influencing others; one who is an apostate⁴⁹⁴ from the order of ascetics (*pratyavasita*); a robber; a servant of the king; a brāhmaṇa who sells human beings, cattle, meat, bones, honey, milk, water or clarified butter; a member of the three higher castes who engages in usury; one who has given up the peculiar duties of his caste (or station); a *kulika*; a bard; one who is the servant of a low person; one who has quarrelled with his father; one who causes dissensions. Kauṭ. III. 11, Manu VIII. 65, Viṣṇu Dh. S. VIII. 1 and several others say that the king cannot be cited as a witness⁴⁹⁵ (except possibly to prove the plea of *res judicata* or to prove what transpired before him when a litigation was going on).