96
HISTORY OF INDIA.
[Book IV.
Trial by oj-deal.
Written codes.
Kinds of action.
A.D. — neutralized by the following strange declaration: — "To women, however, at a time of dalliance, or on a proposal of marriage, in the case of grass or fruit eaten b}^ a cow, of wood taken for a sacrifice, or of a promise made for the preserva- tion of a Brahmin, it is no deadly sin to take a light oath." Sometimes when the oath was not deemed satisfactory, another test might be employed — a test most absurd and nugatory, though used for ages, and not long ago abolished for the first time in our own country. It was what is called tlie trial by ordeal, with reference to which it is said — "Let him (the judge) cause the part}^ to hold fire, or to dive under water, or severallj^ to touch the hands of his children and wife ; he whom the blazing fire burns not, whom the water soon forces not up, or who meets with no speedy misfortune, must be held veracious in his testi- mony on oath."
The written codes, conformably to which the judge was to decide, contain a complete system of law arranged under distinct heads, and making it impossible to doubt, notwithstanding its numerous defects, that the people employing it were considerably advanced in civilization. In the Institutes of Menu, eighteen "titles of law' are enumerated, and said to be "settled as the groundwork of all judicial procedure in this world." These titles are classed in the following order: — 1. Debt on loans for consumption ; 2. Deposits and loans for use ; 3. Sale without ownership ; 4. Concerns among partners ; 5. Subtraction of what has been given ; G. Non-payment of wages or hire ; 7. Non-performance of agree- ments; 8. Rescission of sale and purchase; 9. Disputes between master and servant; 10. Contests on boundaries ; 11 and 12. Assault and slander ; 13. Lar- ceny; li. Robbery and other violence ; 15. Adultery; 16. Altercation between man and wife, and their several duties; 17. The law of inheritance ; 18. Gaming with dice, and living animals. A mere glance at these titles reveals a compre- hensive and complicated course of jurisprudence ; but the arrangement in not drawing a proper line of demarcation between civil and criminal matters is inconvenient ; and it will therefore be proper, in pointing out some of the leading features of the Hindoo code, to disregard this arrangement, and substitute for it our own more natural division of — 1. Civil law; and 2. Criminal law. Leading Qj^^ (,f ^|jg leadiuo; axioms of our law is, that no man is to seek redress at
axiom. °
his own hand. Tiie axiom of Hindoo law is the very opposite ; for it seems to be implied, that a creditor need not raise his action till other means of redress have failed. Artful management, the mediation of friends, distress, and other compulsory means, may be used by him; and if he thus succeed in retaking his property, the king must not only not rebuke him, but ratify his possession as "payment by the debtor." Among five modes of recovery which he may employ, "legal force" is mentioned last. "Tliis law" says Mr. Elphinstone,' "still operates so strongly in some Hindoo states, that a creditor imprisons his debtor in his private house, and even keeps him for a period witJiout food,
' Elphinstone's India, vol. i. pages 61, 62.
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