The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c20.13

c20.13

The oath itself was regarded as a kind of ordeal. There were five other ordeals successively more serious. In the first, the ordeal by water, the accused, brought to a deep rapid river or a deep well, spoke as follows: "Since thou belongest to the pure angels (gods ?), and knowest both what is secret and public, kill me if I lie and preserve me if I speak the truth." He was then thrown by five persons into the water. It was believed that if he had spoken the truth, he would not drown and die. In the second ordeal, the judge would send both parties to the most venerated temple of the place, where the defendant would fast for a day and then, dressed in new garments, post himself with the plaintiff in the temple. "The priests pour water over the idol and give it him to drink. If he, then, has not spoken the truth, he at once vomits blood." In the ordeal by balance, the accused was first weighed on the scale. He then called on the gods to testify to his innocence and wrote down his invocations and declarations on a piece of paper. The paper was fastened to his head. "He is a second time placed in the scale of the balance. In case he has spoken the truth, he now weighs more than the second time." In the fourth ordeal, "they take butter and sesame-oil in equal quantities, and boil them in a kettle. Then they throw a leaf into it, which by getting flaccid and burned is to them a sign of the boiling of the mixture. When the boiling is at its height, they throw a piece of gold into the kettle and order the defendant to fetch it out with his own hand. If he has spoken the truth, he fetches it out.” In the highest ordeal, a piece of iron, red-hot and almost molten, was, with a pair of tongs, put on the hand of the accused; “there being nothing between the hand and the iron save a broad leaf of some plant, and under it some few and scattered corns of rice in the husks. They order him to carry it seven paces, and then he may throw it to the ground.”¹ It will be observed that while some of the ordeals were extremely mild and even trivial, others were very harsh and severe. Their choice probably depended on the nature of the charge and the sex, rank and character of the accused.