180 Appendix to Account of Hindu Courts of Justice. 



a court of justice are authorized judges. The cliief judge is the superintendent of the 

 judicature. Among these, including the king, the last in order has superior jurisdic- 

 tion in the trial of causes, on account of pre-eminent knowledge.* 



" The reason of the law is this : kindred and the rest, being related by consanguinity 

 or other tie, may decide unjustly, through partiality or a like motive. An appeal, there- 

 fore, lies to the king and other authorities, on alleging, with probable truth, that the 

 cause had been ill decided. Fellow-artisans have superior jurisdiction above the kin- 

 dred, because they are alien to the parties. But townsmen, though the single connexion 

 of a common residence exist, have superior authority, because they are strangers to the 

 parties, with no mutual relation, since they belong to different tribes and follow other 

 professions. Persons appointed by the king, being still less connected with the 

 parties, have jurisdiction above the co-habitants, because men appointed by the king, 

 after due examination, cannot be susceptible of the influence of partiality or the like 

 motives, since they are under awe of the sovereign. Assuredly, for the two reasons 

 above-mentioned, the chief judge, the domestic priest, and the ministers of state, have 

 superior authority. The impartiality of the king is obviously and absolutely certain, 

 for he is intrusted with the protection of the people; partiality would in him be a still 

 more heinous sin ; and he must apprehend the temporal and evident evils arising 

 therefrom, such as perturbation of the people, and so forth : since it is a maxim, ' when 

 the prince commits injustice, who can restrain him ? ' His jurisdiction is therefore supe- 

 rior to all. The comparison of intellect, too, is expressly noticed in the text of Vriuas- 



PATI.f 



" Husbandmen, in the subsequent text of VrThaspati, are cultivators of land. 

 Artisans are painters, &c.| 



" Husbandmen, or cultivators ; mechanics, carpenters, and the rest ; artists, painters, 

 &c. ; usurers, lenders at interest; persons wearing the token, &c. ; pas'ujmta, and other 

 heretical sects : these and the following texts are not intended to prohibit the king's 

 hearing such law-suits, but to show that in cases of this kind, since the suits are brought 

 against merchants and the like, such persons should not be excluded from the trial and 

 decision of the causes.§ 



" The trial of law-suits between persons whose resentment is formidable, should be 

 conducted through the intervention of people belonging to the same class. The several 

 orders are those of students in theology, and so forth. If there be a variance of opinion 

 on the question, what is, or what is not ordained, the king, even though he enter on the 

 inquiry, should not expressly declare the law, lest he excite the anger of the party that 

 is foiled. First assuaging the wrath of these persons by mildness and gentle discourse, 

 let him then inculcate their duty on them through the intervention of brdliinan'as.\\ 



" Among twice-born men, amidst whom a controversy has arisen concerning affairs 

 relative to the order of a householder, ' whether this be the sense of the law, or that 



* Vachnspati viis'ra in Vt/avahat-a C/iiiifdniaii'i. -f Mitr, mis'r. in Viramifr, 



J Lacshmidhara/m Ca/p. § Alitr. mis'r. \n Vtramitr. |j Vach. viis'r. in Vyav. C/iint, 



