s 



HINDI LAW IN 



head of the village could not effectually help him, the credi- 

 tor who could not prevail on his debtor to come to a settle- 

 ment was used himself to arrest the recalcitrant one, in the 

 name of the Prince, and laying him under pain of being 

 declared a rebel in case of his breaking the arrest. In such 

 case the debtor stayed where he was till he could satisfy the 

 claim, or until passers-by interfered in his behalf and induced 

 the creditor to give him more time. Ordinarily the creditor 

 would consent to wait for a few months longer ; after which, 

 if satisfaction was not obtained, he would hale the debtor 

 before the prince, who, as a matter of course, would grant 

 more time. Ultimately the defaulter would be sent to jail, 

 and his oxen and furniture would be sold to pay the debt, 

 part of which in almost all cases would be remitted. Whilst 

 under arrest, the debtor's patient obedience was something 

 remarkable : without the leave of his creditor he might 

 neither eat nor drink. 



There can be but little doubt, I imagine, that we have 

 here a somewhat distorted account of a primitive mode of 

 enforcing payment of debts, in its origin probably super- 

 stitious and magical, that must have obtained in most 

 parts of the world before the State has thought it necessary 

 regularly to interfere in the interests of justice between man 

 and man. We find traces of this mode in Matthew xviii. 

 The Smriti recognizes it. Marco Polo found it prevalent in 

 South India, and himself saw the King arrested and coerced 

 by a subject, who had contrived unperceived to draw the 

 ' circle' round the royal body (see Yule's Marco Polo, II, 279). 

 Doing dharna is but a variety of the procedure. And even 

 now, with the Police and Small Cause Courts at hand, the 

 lower classes of Madras believe creditors to have power 

 themselves to arrest and detain their debtors who may 

 attempt to start on a journey. 



A suitor dissatisfied with the judgment of tho head of the 



