192 Appexdtx to Account of Hindu Courts qf Justice. 



veracity, but men are conversant with falsehood; a divine character belongs, even in 

 this world, to him whose sentiments strictly conform with truth.* 



" As a blind man, heedless, swallows thorny fish; so does he, who enters a court of 

 justice, and there pronounces an opinion remote from equity and truth, through mis- 

 take of facts.f 



" A judge, pronouncing a fliir opinion, incurs neither enmity nor sin ; but one who 

 acts otherwise, incurs both.J 



" If the decision be at variance with truth, the witnesses, the judges, the superinten- 

 dent of the court, and the sovereign of the land, forfeit confidence, lose stability, and 

 fall to a region of torture.J 



" When the judges, fully understanding the latent truth of the case, nevertheless 

 pass judgment otherwise, and not as ordained by the law ; when the cause is decided in 

 such manner, then is truth wounded by perjured wicked jmlges. Whenever the sacred 

 code is transgressed by the judges in the decision of a cause, justice, being injured 

 by iniquity, doubtless will destroy those sinful men.|| 



" The divine form of justice is represented as a bull showering boons; and the gods 

 consider him who impedes justice as a slayer of a bull and hinderer of benefactions; 

 let no man, therefore, violate justice. The only firm friend who follows men, even 

 after death, is virtue : every other is extinct with the body .11 



" Justice being destroyed, will destroy; being preserved, will preserve; therefore it 

 must never be violated, lest, being injured, it should destroy [thyself and] us.** 



" Justice, wounded by the shafts of falsehood, roars in the midst of the assembly 

 against injustice set before him: this evil being should be slain, even by the wicked, ff 



" For where justice is destroyed by iniquity, aud truth bj' falsehood, the judges who 

 ba.sely look on, shall also be destroyed. J J 



" But judges who, repairing to the court, sit there in silent meditation, and do not 

 deliver a candid opinion as they ought, are all deemed guilty of deliberate falsehood.} J 



" When justice, wounded by iniquity, approaches, and the judges extract not the 

 dart, they also shall be wounded by it.|| || 



" As a surgeon draws a dart from a wounded body by cautious efforts, so should the 

 chief judge extract the dart of iniquity from the law-suit.flf 



" When all the persons who are members of the judici.il assembly opine ' this is 

 right,' the suit is relieved from the dart of injustice; but otherwise it continues wounded 

 by the rankling dart. There is no judicial assembly wherein no elders sit ; nor are the}' 

 elders who pronounce not an equitable judgment ; nor is that an equitable judgment 

 which truth does not pervade ; nor is that truth which is contaminated with fraud."*** 



* VrViaspati, ciiei'm Calp. Sec. f A'arcrfo, 1. 2. 21. and ffiW<a, cited in 5n!. C/j. 



X Xareda, I . S. 6. § J'n/iaspali, eked in Calp. || Cali/a!/nna,citediaCalp.,&c. 



U Menu, 8. IG. 17., Narcda, 1. 2. 0. 10. Ilarita, and Baudhiiiiana, cited in Calp. 



** JI/f««, 8. 15. Narcda, \.2.\i. f f Xthn/a, 1. 2. 12. 



tt Mcuu,S.H. Kareda,\.2.\3. §§ Xareda,\.'2.\'t. || || il/cnw, 8. 12. A'accrfa, 1. 2. l,i. 



tU Narcda, 1 . 2. 22. and Harita. »*» Narcda, 1. 2. 23. 24. 



