The institutes of Vishnu (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880)

40

VISH2VU.

V, i82.

182. If the quantity be less, he shall pay a fine of
sixteen Suvanzas.
183. That land, whether little or much, on the
produce of which one man can subsist for a year, is
called the quantity of a bull’s hide.
184. If a dispute should arise between two (credi-
tors) concerning (a field or other immovable pro-
perty) which has been mortgaged to both at the
same time, that mortgagee shall enjoy its produce
who holds it in his possession, without having
obtained it by force.
185. What has been possessed in order and with
a legitimate title (such as purchase, donation, and
the like), the possessor may keep; it can never be
taken from him.
186. Where (land or other) property has been
held in legitimate possession by the father (or
grandfather), the son’s right to it, after his death,
cannot be contested; for it has become his own by
force of possession.
187. If possession has been held of an estate by
three (successive) generations in due course, the
fourth in descent shall keep it as his property, even
without a written title.
188. He who kills (in his own defence a tiger or
other) animal with sharp nails and claws, or a (goat
or other) horned animal (excepting cows), or a (boar
or other) animal with sharp teeth, or an assassin, or
an elephant, or a horse, or any other (ferocious
animal by whom he has been attacked), commits no
crime.
189. Any one may unhesitatingly slay a man
who attacks him with intent to murder him, whether
his spiritual teacher, young or old, or a Brahmazza,