History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.434.2

v4.c63.434.2

(256) applies the word *paścātkāra*⁵⁹⁹ (refutation) to a judgment containing the above particulars given after a complete contest, while he restricts the word *jayapatra* to a document (given by the judge) when a plaintiff becomes what is called *hīnavādī* (because he makes a change in his pleading or for similar cause) and when there has been no complete trial of an action; and such a document embodies only what happened. Kauṭ. (III. 19) appears to employ the word 'paścātkāra' in a somewhat different sense when he says 'the person, who, when charged with murder, does not reply to the charge that very day, stands refuted' (i. e. is found guilty)⁶⁰⁰. The Mit. (on Yāj. II. 91) differing from Kāt. holds a jayapatra to be a judgment giving a summary of the plaint, the reply, the evidence and the decision, while when a plaintiff is defeated for change of pleading or for default of appearance or for non-prosecution the document stating this is called '*hīnapatraka*'. It is to be regretted that ancient jayapatras in Sanskrit have not yet been discovered. In 25 Calcutta Weekly Notes pp. CXLII-III Dr. Jolly communicated the substance of a *jayapatra*, couched in ancient Javanese, engraved on a copper-plate found in the island of Java and described by Dr. Brandes in a Dutch paper. That judgment is dated *śake* 849 (928 A. D.), relates to a dispute about a debt of one *suvarṇa* in which the plaintiff failed because he did not appear at the trial.