Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t6.67

c4.t6.67

He is brought before the king together with the plaintiffs. In a perfectly judicial manner the proceedings are related in the story. The plaintiff in each case sets forth his complaint. The king questions Gāmaṇi, the accused, about its correctness. The latter on every occasion replies in the affirmative, but he also places his own story by way of justification of the case without making any secret of it. The king cross-examines the complainants and finds them guilty of ‘wilful suppression or denial of truth.’ Hence both the parties are found guilty, and deserve to be punished. “The decisions contained such conditions as ever took the breath of a Shylock away.”³ The judgment on the first charge runs thus: “You failed to return the oxen, and therefore you are his debtor for them. But this man, in saying that he had not seen them, told a direct lie. Therefore you with your own hands shall pluck his eyes out, and you shall yourself pay him 24 pieces of money as the price of the oxen.” On the second charge the judgment was: “Caṇḍa, you take the man’s wife to your house; and when a son shall be born to you, hand him over to the husband”; on the third: “Caṇḍa, this man must have a father. But you cannot bring him back from the dead. Then take his mother to your house, and do you be a father to him”; and on the fourth: “This man has told a direct lie in saying that he did not tell you to hand back the horse. You may tear out his tongue, and then pay him a thousand pieces for the horse’s price.” All the complainants were however dumbfounded and departed.