Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s9.10

c19.s9.10

When the government levied Harki upon the innocent, a false accuser could not expect mercy when detected. Fine was the usual punishment for such an offence. Three cases of false complaints are found in the Selections from Balaji Baji Rao's Diaries. In the first, Vithoji Jingar was fined Rs. 75 for bringing a false charge of theft against Govindaji Jagannath Deshmukh.³¹ In the second we find how Rama, a barber of Kasba Saswad, had brought a false charge of witchcraft against Subhanji Jingar and was fined Rs. 40. The Gunhagari as usual was "*Jivan Mafik*."³² In the third instance Soyraji of Fort Narayangad was fined Rs. 50 for accusing Maini, daughter of Rakhamaji Repal of adultery with Shivaji a washerman.³³ It is noteworthy that Maini proved her innocence by an ordeal by metal (that of drawing out a piece of metal from a potful of boiling oil). So in these three cases of false complaints, the fine varied from Rs. 40 to 75. Evidently the offenders were men of small means, for during the administration of the same Peshwa and only ten years later, we find that Hanmant Bhat, brother of the Pratinidhi, was fined Rs. 1,000 for giving false evidence.³⁴ This explains the policy of levying fine in proportion to the means of the offender. What would be a preventive in case of Rama, a barber, could not be a preventive in case of the Pratinidhi's brother. Therefore the latter had to pay a fine twenty-five times more than what was levied upon the former, although the offence committed by the barber might have been more serious.