History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.422

v4.c63.422

Ordeals played their part in the judicial systems of most ancient countries. In early England handling of red-hot iron and plunging the hand in boiling water were the commonest ordeals. In the ordeal of water sinking was a sign of innocence and floating of guilt. Stephens (History of Criminal Law of England, vol. I. p. 73) suggests that the ordeal of water was a form of honourable suicide. The Assize of Northampton (1176 A. D.) prescribed the ordeal of water for murder, robbery, theft, forgery and arson, but ordeals were abolished in England from 1215 A. D. (*ibid.* vol. I. p. 300). In India⁵⁹¹ there is epigraphic and other evidence to show that ordeals were resorted to till the end of the 18th century and rarely even later. In the Kittur Pillar Inscription (J. B. B. R. A. S. vol. IX. pp. 307-309) dated in Kaliyuga era 4289 in the reign of Kadamba king Jayakeśideva there is a description of the *phāladivya* which was administered by mutual agreement on Sunday to an ācārya Śivaśakti who had a dispute about a plot of land with Kalyāṇaśakti the ācārya of another shrine and whose hand was examined the next day after he underwent the ordeal by all the bankers of the *agrahāra* village Degāve. In the Silimpur stone slab Inscription of the time of Jayapāladeva (E. I. vol. XIII. p. 283 at p. 291-292) there is a reference to the ordeal of balance⁵⁹² (about 1200 A. D.). The Viṣṇukuṇḍin king Mādhavavarman in the 7th century A. D. (Journal of Andhra Historical Research Society, vol. VI pp. 17, 20, 24) is said to have carried out various ordeals (*avasita-vividha-divyaḥ*). The E. C. vol. III (Māṇḍyā Taluka Ins. No. 79 p. 47) records that a dispute having arisen about the boundaries of land bestowed by means of a copperplate grant by the Hoysaḷa king Vīra-Narasiṁhadeva, one Kannaya, a descendant of the original donee, performed an ordeal by holding consecrated food in the presence of the God Hoysaleśvara in the capital Dorasamudra and came out successful. E. C. IV. p. 27 (Yelandur Jagir Ins. No. 2 page 27, about 1580 A. D.) is a charter to potters whose headmen underwent the ordeal of dipping their hands in boiling ghee as against barbers and washermen who denied that potters could pare their toe nails and tie on upper cloth (at the time of marriage). In the Indian Antiquary for 1931 (vol. 60 p. 179) an extract is cited from the Archæological Report for Travancore 1930 which describes the balance ordeal undergone by a brāhmaṇa 18 years before and seen by the writer himself in the temple of Śiva at Calicut. For the ordeal of red-hot ploughshare in the case of thefts, vide Report of South Indian Epigraphy for 1907, para. 27.