Administrative System of the Marathas c25.s4.5

c25.s4.5

Brihaspati recommends a curious way of deciding a boundary dispute when no witness or reliable evidence was available. "In default of witnesses and signs, even a single man, agreeable to both parties, may fix the boundary, wearing a red garland of flowers and a red cloak, putting earth on his head adhering to truth, and having kept a fast." 42 A disputed boundary was fixed by a Patil of one of the contending villages, during the reign of Chhatrapati Shahu, not indeed with red garlands and red cloaks on and earth on his head, but he walked over the boundary with a cow's hide on his head and putting a garland of *tulsi* beads round his throat. This in fact was a decision by ordeal.