History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.33.2

v4.c63.33.2

This seems to be the sense of 'caritra' in 'phalakavāre charitratoti' occurring in Nasik Inscription No. 12 in E. I. vol. VIII. p. 82. In prakīrṇaka 24 Nār. seems to give the same sense 'sthityarthaṁ pṛthivīpālais-caritraviṣayāḥ kṛtāḥ'. *Caritra* also means 'anumāna' (possession and presumptions). 'Anumānena nirṇītam caritramiti kathyate'-says Bṛ. quoted in Vy. Nirṇaya p. 139 and Par. M. III. p. 198. Usages are the means of decision in certain cases apart from the question whether they are supported by the smṛtis or not. ‘Caritram pustakaraṇe’ means that such usages are valid means of decision if they have been written down or recorded by the king, while ‘caritram tu svīkaraṇe’ (the reading in Par. M.) means ‘usages become the rule of decision when they are accepted as valid by the people and by the courts’. When a king issues in a matter of dispute an order which is not opposed to smṛtis or local usages and which is thought out as the most appropriate one by the king's intellect or which is issued to decide a matter when the authorities on each of two sides are equally strong, it is a decision by royal command. Bṛ. (in Par. M. III. p. 148) and Kāt. (verses 35–38 q. in Sm. C. II. p. 10, Par. M. III. pp. 16–17, V. P. p. 7) explain the above four. Bṛhaspati gives two meanings of caritra: (1) what is decided by inference; (2) the usages of a country.