Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s18.1

c27.s18.1

In the administration of justice, "Akbar encouraged the use of trial by ordeal in the Hindu fashion."¹⁶ Ordeal by heated metal was commonly resorted to by the ignorant people of Sind even after the Muhammadan conquest of that province. Ali Sher Kani, the author of *Tuhfatu-l Kiram* writes, "An ordeal, still practised among the most ignorant, is that of taking a red-hot spade. Green leaves of a tree are tied on to the hand of the suspected person with raw thread, and an iron spade, heated to redness, being then placed on his palm, he must carry it for several spaces quickly and it has often been seen that neither the thread nor the leaves have been in the slightest degree affected by the heat of the red-hot iron, although when cast to the ground it scorched it like the sand in the oven of a parcher of grain."¹⁷ James Forbes, an intelligent observer of Indian customs and manners, says that trial by ordeal was allowed under Muhammadan Governments.¹⁸ And the Maratha documents show that trial by ordeal was very common under Southern Muhammadan potentates. Trial by ordeal is distinctly opposed to the principles of Islam though one may come across a rare instance of taking an oath after circumambulating the Kaba in vindication of one's innocence. Jalal-uddin Khilji wanted Siddy Mowla and his accomplices to undergo a fire ordeal. Ferishta gives the following account of that affair: "The king caused both Siddy Mowla and Kazy Julal-ood-Deen Kashany to be apprehended, and brought before him for examination. They persisted in their innocence, and as no other witness appeared against them, the accusation was rendered doubtful. The king, therefore, caused a fire to be prepared in the plain of Bahadurpoor, in order that they might be submitted to the fiery ordeal to purge themselves of their guilt; and having left the city to see the ceremony, he ordered a circle to be railed off round the pile. Siddy Mowla and the other accused were then brought, in order that they might walk through the flames to prove their innocence. Having said their prayers, they were just about to plunge into the fire, when the king stopped them, and turning to his ministers, asked, if it was lawful to try Mussulmans by the fiery ordeal?