DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52452#0056
28
NARADA.
by one of the immoral motives, such as partiality,
makes some special statement, it shall at once be
completely reduced to writing on a board or other
(writing material).
19. Other statements than those (taken down at
first) regarding the plaintiff on a board or other (writing
material) shall be removed, after careful considera-
tion, by persons versed in law, (when reporting on
the trial) for the information of the king’s judge.
20. Let such persons reduce to writing the state-
ments of each party, and whatever else has been
written on the board, together with the names of the
judge that Vasantasena has been murdered, adds, ‘not by myself.’
The judge pounces upon the latter statement, suspicious as it looks,
and causes the scribe to put it down in writing on the floor. The
prince, perceiving that he has committed himself, effaces the writing
with his foot. The custom of writing the statements of the parties on
the floor is repeatedly referred to in the Indian dramas. From what
Bnhaspati says, it would seem that in the time of this law-writer
the statements of the parties had first to be written on a board, and
then on a leaf, after all the required corrections had been entered.
Narada seems to refer to the same custom in paragraphs 19 and 20.
According to Dr. Burnell, the boards referred to in the law-books
must have been a sort of black wooden boards. See Burnell, South
Indian Palaeography, 2nd ed., p. 87.
20. In translating this paragraph, the obscurity of which is
only surpassed by the preceding paragraph, I have deviated from
the interpretation proposed by the commentator.
A. takes this paragraph as containing four independent clauses:
1. what has been stated or admitted by both parties; 2. whatever
else has been written on the board; 3. the depositions of the
witnesses; 4. what each party has conceded to the other. These
four things should be reduced to writing by the persons entrusted
with the judicial investigation. ‘ Whatever else has been written
on the board,’ i. e. whatever the plaintiff amends or adds, while the
plaint is being reduced to writing. Such statements, as shown in
the next paragraph, are called Pratyakalita.
NARADA.
by one of the immoral motives, such as partiality,
makes some special statement, it shall at once be
completely reduced to writing on a board or other
(writing material).
19. Other statements than those (taken down at
first) regarding the plaintiff on a board or other (writing
material) shall be removed, after careful considera-
tion, by persons versed in law, (when reporting on
the trial) for the information of the king’s judge.
20. Let such persons reduce to writing the state-
ments of each party, and whatever else has been
written on the board, together with the names of the
judge that Vasantasena has been murdered, adds, ‘not by myself.’
The judge pounces upon the latter statement, suspicious as it looks,
and causes the scribe to put it down in writing on the floor. The
prince, perceiving that he has committed himself, effaces the writing
with his foot. The custom of writing the statements of the parties on
the floor is repeatedly referred to in the Indian dramas. From what
Bnhaspati says, it would seem that in the time of this law-writer
the statements of the parties had first to be written on a board, and
then on a leaf, after all the required corrections had been entered.
Narada seems to refer to the same custom in paragraphs 19 and 20.
According to Dr. Burnell, the boards referred to in the law-books
must have been a sort of black wooden boards. See Burnell, South
Indian Palaeography, 2nd ed., p. 87.
20. In translating this paragraph, the obscurity of which is
only surpassed by the preceding paragraph, I have deviated from
the interpretation proposed by the commentator.
A. takes this paragraph as containing four independent clauses:
1. what has been stated or admitted by both parties; 2. whatever
else has been written on the board; 3. the depositions of the
witnesses; 4. what each party has conceded to the other. These
four things should be reduced to writing by the persons entrusted
with the judicial investigation. ‘ Whatever else has been written
on the board,’ i. e. whatever the plaintiff amends or adds, while the
plaint is being reduced to writing. Such statements, as shown in
the next paragraph, are called Pratyakalita.