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

52

VISH2VU.

VIII, 37.

are weighed against each other, (it is found that)
truth ranks even higher than a thousand horse-
sacrifices.
37. ‘Those who, though acquainted with the facts,
and appointed to give evidence, stand mute, are
equally criminal with, and deserve the same punish-
ment as, false witnesses.’ (After having addressed
them) thus, let the king examine the witnesses in
the order of their castes.
38. That plaintiff whose statement the witnesses
declare to be true, shall win his suit; but he whose
statement they declare to be wrong, shall certainly
lose it.
39. If there is contradictory evidence, let the
king decide by the plurality of witnesses ; if equality-
in number, by superiority in virtue; if parity in
virtue, by the evidence of the best among the
twice-born.
40. Whenever a perjured witness has given false
evidence in a suit, (the king) must reverse the
judgment; and whatever has been done, must be
considered as undone.
IX.
1. Now follows (the rule regarding) the per-
formance of ordeals.
39. Nand. takes the term dvi^ottama, ‘the best among the
twice-born,’ as an equivalent for ‘ Brahmaraas.’ Kulluka (on M.
VIII, 73) refers it to ‘ twice-born men, who are particularly active
in the discharge of their religious duties.’
IX. 2. Y. II, 96, 99. —-11. M.VIII, 114,115 ; Y.II, 95.—20-22.
Y. II, 95, 96, 99. — 23. Y. II, 98. — 33. Y. II, 97. The whole
section on ordeals (IX-XIV) agrees very closely with the corre-
sponding section of the Institutes of Narada (5, 107-9, 8).