Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t6.59

c4.t6.59

Theft and robbery seem to have been the most ordinary cases that came before the court for adjudication.³ Very often an innocent man was arrested on a charge of theft, and brought before the Court. Inflictions of tortures, with a view to elicit confession of a crime, were prevalent.⁴ A simple rustic (Jānapado) perfectly innocent man, is arrested by the King's men (purisā) on a charge of theft of the queen's pearl-necklace and is forced to plead guilty of the charge, only to avoid the crushing and ruthless blows administered to him: "If I deny the charge, I shall die with the beating I shall get from these ruffians. I'd better say I took it."⁵ Thus the man had to confess. And when brought before the king, he naively implicated the Treasurer, the latter in the same manner implicating the Chaplain, the Chief Musician and then a Courtezan who utterly denied ever having received the necklace.⁶ All the five prisoners were however found innocent and released. Another very interesting case¹ is that in which Gāmaṇicaṇḍa, a retired Government servant, ‘the most innocent man that ever was born in the world,’ stood charged of four offences, viz.,