[157] Each element (prakṛti) of the circle, or king, has a kingdom consisting of himself plus the five other members of the state (angas), the traditional six members of the state. Twelve of these make seventy-two. (But seven members of the state are enumerated at 9.294: the same six, plus the ally.)
[159] Political policy (naya) is the art of political manipulation, summed up in the six tactics listed in 7.160.
[163] This may mean that in the first case they march in the same direction, and in the second case in different directions; or simply that they either work together or work independently. It may also mean that the first instance yields present consequences and the second instance future consequences.
[164] The verse may indicate either that one wages war for one’s own sake at both the right and the wrong time, or that one wages war for oneself at the right time and for an ally at the wrong time. The right time for war is described in 7.182.
[167] Dichotomy is by its very nature two-fold, involving a separation of two forces, though it does not take two different forms, as the other tactics are said to do.
[168] The meaning seems to be that, even when the king himself is not hard pressed by enemies, he might seek refuge under a virtuous king in order to prevent that king from being attacked by enemies.
[172] The vehicles would include carriages as well as carriage animals and beasts of burden, not merely horses but elephants and perhaps camels; the army (bala) would consist of troops.
[175] That is, he should seek refuge with such a man.
[182] The month of Mārgaśīrṣa (‘the deer’s head’, mid-November to mid-December) is fine because, according to the commentaries, there is plenty of food and the roads are dry. Phālguna and Caitra are mid-February to mid-March and mid-March to mid-April. The condition of the army would include such considerations as the amount of food available, the nature of the journey to be undertaken in the march, and the condition of the men and animals.
[184] The commentators suggest that to ‘secure his position’ means to establish a camp within enemy territory or to win disaffected people over from the other side.
[185] The three kinds of roads go through open country (jāngala), marshes, and forests, or through villages, forests, and hills. The commentators agree that the first four of the six parts of the army are elephants, horses, chariots, and infantry; the last two are variously listed as the general and the workmen, the treasury and the workmen, or the riders of the horses and elephants and the weapon-bearers.
[187] The formation in the shape of a rod is in straight columns or an oblong; a cart is a wedge, broad in front and narrow in the back; the boar is a rhombus, pointed in the front and back and wide in the middle; the crocodile (or mythical sea-serpent, makara) is hour-glass shaped, narrow in the middle and broad in the front and back; the needle is a long line; and the eagle (or Garuḥa bird, a mythical eagle, king of the birds and the mount of the god Viṣṇu) is a rhombus like the boar, but with wide wings.
[188] One commentator explains that the lotus formation is a circle that spreads out on all sides, with the king in the middle.
[191] The formation of the thunderbolt or trident (vajra) is created by making a three-fold division of the troops.
[193] The peoples named in this verse are from areas in Northern India along the Ganges river, from Delhi to Mathurā.
[205] The word for ‘the divine’ (daiva) also means ‘fate’.
[207] The heel-snatcher is a king who attacks in the rear; see 7.156n. The verse seems to be saying that the king should take advantage of his victorious march to make some sort, of alliance with the heel-snatcher (who, being the enemy of his enemy, is his ally) or the heel-snatcher’s attacker (who, being the enemy of the enemy of his enemy, is his enemy).
CHAPTER 8
[1] A king who wishes to hear legal cases should enter the court-room modestly with priests and counsellors who know how to counsel. [2] Seated or standing there, wearing modest clothes and ornaments, he should raise his right hand and hear the cases of the parties to the lawsuits [3] every day, each individual (case) within the eighteen causes of legal action, in accordance with arguments taken from local practices and from authoritative teachings.
[4] These (causes) are: first, non-payment of debts; then, deposits; sale without ownership; partnerships; failure to deliver what has been given; [5] failure to pay wages; violation of an agreement; revocation of purchase and sale; disputes between the owner (of livestock) and the herdsman; [6] boundary disputes; assault; verbal abuse; theft; acts of physical violence; sexual misconduct with women; [7] the duties of a husband and wife; division (of inheritance); and gambling and betting (on animals). These are the eighteen causes of legal action here.
[8] (The king) should try, on the basis of eternal justice, the lawsuits of men who mostly dispute these topics. [9] But when the king does not hear the case himself, he should appoint a learned priest to hear the case. [10] (That priest) should enter the high court flanked by three judges and, seated or standing, he should hear the cases. [11] Where three priests who know the Vedas and a learned man appointed by the king sit (in judgement), that place is known as the court of Brahmā.
[12] But where justice, penetrated by injustice, approaches the court and the judges there do not cut the dart out of him, they (too) are penetrated there. [13] Either the court must not be entered or what is said must be honest; a man who speaks falsely or not at all is an offender. [14] For where justice is destroyed by injustice, and truth by falsehood, while the judges there look on, they are destroyed. [15] When justice is destroyed, it destroys; when justice is protected, it protects. Therefore justice must not be destroyed, or justice destroyed may kill us. [16] For lord justice is a bull (vṛṣan), and anyone who puts an end (alam) to it the gods regard as a base servant (vṛṣala); therefore one should not destroy justice. [17] Justice is the one friend who follows even after death, for everything else is lost along with the body. [18] One quarter of the injustice belongs to the one who causes it, one quarter to the witness, one quarter to all the judges, and one quarter to the king. [19] But where a man who should be condemned is condemned, the king is guiltless, the judges are free (from guilt), and the guilt falls (only) on the one who did it.
[20] A man who makes his living only by his birth (as a priest), or who merely says that he is a priest, may, at the king’s pleasure, explain justice, but a servant never. [21] But if a servant makes decisions about justice while a king looks on, his kingdom sinks down like a cow in mud. [22] A kingdom overrun by atheists, where servants are in the majority and there are no twice-born men, is soon entirely destroyed, oppressed by famine and disease.
[23] (The king) should take his place on the throne of justice, with his body covered and his mind concentrated, bow low to the Guardians of the World, and begin to hear the case. [24] Recognizing both what is profitable and what is not profitable, and what is intrinsically just and unjust, he should hear all the cases of the parties in the order of their classes. [25] He should discover the inner emotion of men from the outward signs, by their voice, colour, involuntary movements, and facial expressions, by their gaze and their gestures. [26] The inner mind-and-heart is grasped by facial expressions, involuntary movements, gait, gesture, speech, and changes in the eyes and mouth.
[27] The king should protect the estate and other inherited property of a boy until he has come home (after his studies) or passed beyond his childhood. [28] In the same way, he should protect women who are barren or have no sons, who have no families, who are faithful wives, widows, or ill. [29] But if, while these women are alive, their own relatives take away this (property), a just king should punish them with the punishment for theft.
[30] If the owner of any property has disappeared, the king should keep it in trust for three years; within three years the owner may take it, and after that the king may take it. [31] If someone says, ‘This is mine,’ he should be questioned in accordance with the rules; if he describes the shap
e, the number, and so forth, he deserves that property as the owner. [32] But if he does not accurately declare the time and place (of the loss) and the colour, shape, and measurements of the lost property, then he deserves a fine equal to its value. [33] Now, the king may take a sixth part of property (thus) lost and found, or a tenth, or a twelfth, bearing in mind the laws of good men. [34] Property that has been lost and then found should be placed in the keeping of the appropriate people; if the king catches thieves trying to steal it he should have them killed by an elephant.
[35] If a man says truthfully of a treasure-trove, ‘This is mine,’ the king should take a sixth part of it, or a twelfth. [36] But if he lies, he should be fined an eighth of his own property, or a smaller fraction of the treasure, when its value has been calculated. [37] And when a learned priest finds a treasure that was previously hidden, he may take it even without leaving anything, for he is the overlord of everything. [38] But when the king finds ancient treasure hidden in the earth, he should give half to the twice-born and put half in his treasury. [39] The king gets half of ancient treasures and minerals in the ground because he protects (it) and because he is the overlord of the earth.
[40] The king must give back to men of all classes property taken by thieves; a king who uses it for himself commits the offence of a thief. [41] Taking into consideration the laws of the castes, districts, guilds, and families, a king who knows justice should establish the particular law of each. [42] Men who carry out their own innate activities and engage each in his own particular innate activity become dear to people even when they are far away. [43] Neither the king nor even one of the king’s men should start a lawsuit himself, nor ever swallow up a case brought by anyone else. [44] Just as a hunter traces the track of a wild animal by the drops of blood, even so the king should trace the track of justice by inference. [45] When he is engaged in a legal proceeding, he should examine the truth, the object of the dispute, himself, the witnesses, the time and place, and the form of the case. [46] He should ordain (as law) whatever may be the usual custom of good, religious twice-born men, if it does not conflict with (the customs of) countries, families, and castes.
[47] When a creditor urges (the king) for the recovery of a debt from a debtor, he should make the debtor give the creditor the money that he has proven due him. [48] He should make the debtor pay by forcing him through whatever means the creditor can use to obtain his own money. [49] By law, by legal action, by a trick, by the usual custom, and, fifth, by force, he may recover money that has been lent. [50] If a creditor recovers his money from a debtor by himself, the king should not prosecute him for recovering his own property. [51] But if a man denies a debt that has been proven by a legal instrument, (the king) should make him pay the money to the creditor, as well as a small fine, according to his ability.
[52] When a debtor has been told in court, ‘Pay,’ and he denies the debt, the plaintiff must call (a witness who was) at the place (where the debt was contracted), or adduce some other legal instrument. [53] If he calls someone who was not at the place or if he takes back what he has stated or does not realize that his earlier and subsequent statements of fact do not harmonize; [54] or if he states what he means to prove and then afterwards departs from it, or when questioned about a properly acknowledged statement of fact does not uphold it; [55] or if he converses with witnesses in a place where they should not converse, or does not wish to answer a question put to him, or rushes out; [56] or if he is told, ‘Speak,’ and does not speak, or does not prove what he has said, or does not know what comes first and what comes last, then he loses his case.
[57] And if he says, ‘I have witnesses,’ but does not call them when he is told, ‘Call them,’ then a just king should declare that, on these grounds, he, too, has lost his case. [58] If the plaintiff does not speak, he should be subjected to corporal punishment or fined, in accordance with justice; if he does not speak out for three fortnights, according to justice he has lost his case. [59] If (a debtor) falsely denies a certain sum of money, or (a creditor) falsely claims it, the king should make both of them pay a fine of double the amount, for they do not understand justice. [60] If (a debtor) is brought to court by a creditor and, when questioned, denies (the debt), he must be proven (guilty) by at least three witnesses, in the presence of the king and the priests.
[61] I will tell you what kind of men can be made witnesses in legal proceedings brought by creditors, and how they must speak the truth.
[62] Householders, men with sons, men with ancient roots, born of ruler, commoner, or servant wombs, may be witnesses when called by a plaintiff, but not just anyone, except in extremity. [63] Trustworthy men among all the classes who know all the laws and are not greedy may be made witnesses in lawsuits, but (the king) must avoid (witnesses) who are the opposite. [64] People who are connected with the case, untrustworthy, companions or enemies, people whose mistakes have been revealed, who are suffering from diseases, or are corrupt should not be made (witnesses). [65] The king may not be made a witness, nor a workman or a travelling bard, nor a priest who knows his Veda by heart, nor one who carries the mere signs (of his social status) or who has given up all connections (with society), [66] nor a man who is entirely dependent, notorious, an alien, or engaged in the wrong activities, nor an old man, a child, a man who is all alone, a man of the lowest caste, or a man with defective sensory powers, [67] nor anyone in pain, drunk, crazy, oppressed by hunger or thirst, tormented by exhaustion or lust, nor an angry man or a thief.
[68] Women should be witnesses for women, and twice-born men for twice-born men who are like them; good servants for servants, and men born of the lowest castes for men of the lowest castes. [69] But anyone at all who has special knowledge may be a witness for the disputing parties (in a crime committed) in the interior of a house or in a wilderness or involving grievous bodily harm. [70] In the absence (of qualified witnesses, evidence) may be given even by a woman, a child, or an old man, or by a pupil, a relative, a slave, or a hired servant. [71] But it should be realized that what is said by a child or anyone who is old or ill, who (may) speak falsely in testifying, as well as by people of unsound mind, is not reliable. [72] And in all cases of acts of physical violence, theft, sexual misconduct, verbal abuse, and assault, the witnesses need not be scrutinized (very) carefully.
[73] Where there is a division of opinion among the witnesses, the king should accept (the evidence of) the majority; where the numbers are equal, (he should accept) those whose qualities are superior (to the others’); where the qualities are equally divided, (he should accept the evidence of) the priests. [74] Evidence based on what has been seen with one’s own eyes or heard is acceptable; a witness who tells the truth in this way does not lose his religious merit or profit. [75] A witness who in a court of Aryans speaks falsely about something other than what he has seen or heard goes headlong to hell after death and loses heaven. [76] When someone, even if he has not been bound as a witness, sees or hears anything and is questioned about it, he should tell it just as he saw it or heard it. [77] One single man who is not greedy may be a witness, but not several women, even if they are unpolluted, because a woman’s understanding is unreliable, nor even other men who are rife with bad qualities. [78] Only what (witnesses) say quite naturally about a legal proceeding should be accepted; whatever they say other than that, falsely, is useless for the purpose of justice.
[79] When the witnesses have arrived in the court in the presence of the plaintiff and the defendant, the interrogating judge should call on them, charging them in this way: [80] ‘Whatever you know about what these two men did to one another in this case, tell all of it truthfully, for you are the witnesses in this matter. [81] A witness who speaks the truth in testifying wins magnificent worlds (after death) and unsurpassed renown here on earth; such speech is revered by Brahmā. [82] Anyone who tells lies in testifying is helplessly bound fast by Varuṇa’s ropes for a hundred rebirths; therefore one should speak the truth in testifying. [83] A witness i
s purified by truth, and justice grows through truth; therefore witnesses of all classes must speak the truth. [84] For the self alone is the witness of the self, and the self is the refuge of the self; do not have contempt for your own self, the unsurpassed witness of men. [85] Evil-doers think, “No one is looking at us,” but the gods are looking right at them, and so is their very own inner Man. [86] The sky, the earth, the waters, the heart, the moon, the sun, fire, Yama, and the wind, and night, and the two twilights, and justice know what is done by all who have bodies.’
[87] In the forenoon, (the king), unpolluted, should ask the unpolluted twice-born (witnesses), who (stand) facing north or facing east, to give true evidence in the presence of the gods and priests. [88] He should ask a priest by saying, ‘Speak,’ a ruler by saying, ‘Speak the truth,’ a commoner with (warnings about) cows, seed, and gold, and a servant with (warnings about) all the crimes:
[89] ‘The worlds that are traditionally said to belong to the priest-killer, to the murderer of a woman or a child, to an ingrate or to someone who injures a friend, those will belong to you if you speak falsely. [90] My dear man, whatever merit you have acquired since your birth, all of that will go to the dogs if you speak other (than the truth). [91] My good man, you may think about yourself and say, “I am alone,” but this hermit who sees merit and evil stays constantly in your heart. [92] This god who stays in your heart is Yama the son of the Shining Sun. If you do not argue with him, you need not go to the Ganges or to (the Field of) the Kurus. [93] The man who tells lies in testifying must go to beg from his enemy’s family, carrying a skull-bowl, naked, his head shaved, hungry and thirsty, and blind. [94] The guilty man who answers a question falsely when he is questioned in an inquiry of justice goes headlong to hell in blind darkness. [95] A man who says something in court that falls short of the facts, that he did not witness with his own eyes, is like a blind man who eats fish with the bones. [96] For the gods know no better man in this world than the man whose own wise, knowing soul does not doubt him when he talks.
The Laws of Manu Page 25