History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.425

v4.c63.425

In the times of the Maratha kings ordeals were resorted to. For example, in 'Peshwa's Diaries' vol. 2 p. 150 (in 1764-65 A. D.) mention is made of *taptakaṭāha* ordeal (i. e. taking out a coin or ring or a piece of metal from a large vessel in which either water or oil or ghee had been brought to the boiling point) in which the person undergoing it had his right hand burnt up to the middle joints of the fingers and was declared to be false. In a Marathi publication called 'Vatanpatreṁ, nivāḍapatreṁ &c.' pp. 46-56 edited by P. V. Mavjee and D. B. Parasnis (1909) there is a document which describes in great detail the ordeal of fire undergone in connection with a dispute about the office and emoluments of Deshpande in the district of Kalyan in *śake* 1666 Pauṣa bright 11th, Thursday (1745 A. D.). It is stated therein that the ordeal was performed on the tank of the sacred river Godāvari at Kopargaon in accordance with Dharmaśāstra in the presence of the Peshwa himself and learned brāhmaṇas and *paṇḍits* near the temple of the god Śrī Śukleśvara, that as the opponent was long in possession the ordeal had to be performed by the man claiming title, that an iron ball of 50 palas (i. e. 166 *tolas* and two *māṣas*) was heated red-hot and the *śodhya* carried it across seven circles and threw it in the 8th circle on flour and bundles which began to burn, that his hands were examined in the presence of the opponent and the respectable people and were found unaffected and the opponent was made to pass a document of victory to the *śodhya* called '*yejitapatra*'. The description agrees very closely with that given above. In the same work at pp. 36-41 there is a remarkable description about an ordeal undergone (in 1742 A. D.) by Mahomedan litigants in their own mosque for 15 days by lighting lamps and sitting down in the shrine. There are several other *vatanpatras* in the same work which refer to ordeals.