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

48

vishvu.

VII, i3.

letters or signs (such as the flourish denoting the
word -Sri and the like) or documents executed by
the same man, by (enquiring into) the probabilities
of the case, and by (finding out such writings as
show) a mode of writing similar (to that contained
in the disputed document).
13. Should the debtor, or creditor, or witness, or
scribe be dead, the authenticity of the document
has to be ascertained by (comparing with it other)
specimens of their handwriting.
VIII.
1. Now follow (the laws regarding) witnesses.
2. The king cannot be (made a witness); nor a
learned Brahma/za ; nor an ascetic ; nor a gamester ;
nor a thief; nor a person not his own master; nor a
woman; nor a child; nor a perpetrator of the acts
called sahasa1 (violence); nor one over-aged (or more
than eighty years old); nor one intoxicated or
insane ; nor a man of bad fame; nor an outcast;
VIII. 2, 3, 5. M.VIII, 64-67; Y. II, 70, 71. — 4, 5. Gaut.
XIII, 5.— 6. M.VIII, 72; Y. II, 72; Gaut. XIII, 9.-8. M.
VIII, 62, 63 ; Y. II, 68, 69 ; Apast. II, 11, 29, 7 ; Gaut. XIII, 2.
— 9. M.VIII, 77; Y. II, 72. — 10, 11. Y. II, 17.-14- M.VIII,
81; Apast. II, 11, 29, 10; Gaut. XIII, 7. — 15, M.VIII,
104-106; Y. II, 83. — 15. Gaut. XIII, 24.— 18. M. VIII, 25,
26; Y. II, 13-15.— 19. M.VIII, 87; Y. II, 73; Apast. II, 11,
29, 7 ; Gaut. XIII, 12. — 20-23. M.VIII, 88. — 24-26. M.VIII,
89, 90; Y. II, 73-75. — 37. M.VIII, 107; Y. II, 77; Gaut.
XIII, 6. — 38. Y. II, 79. — 39. M.VIII, 73 j Y. II, 78- — 4°-
M.VIII, 117.
2. 1 There are three kinds of sahasa. (Nand.) They are, in the
enumeration of Narada, 1. spoiling fruits or the like; 2. injuring
more valuable articles; 3. offences directed against the life of a
human being, and approaching another man’s wife. See Narada
XIV, 4-6.