व्यवहारमयूख (नीलकण्ठ भट्ट - पश्चिमी भारत की हिन्दू न्याय-संहिता एवं व्यवहार कोष)

72 VYAVAHĀRAMAYŪKHA
Kātyāyana also says
In (the ordeal of) swallowing the grains of rice immersed in the water
of the bath of the deity (the person performing it) should be decided to
be pure (innocent) if the saliva (that he spits) is unmixed (with blood)
and should be decided to be impure (guilty) if it be otherwise ¹
Pitāmaha (= Nārada p 119 v 342) says
(The judge) should declare him to be impure (guilty) who shows
blood (in his saliva) whose chin and palate are shattered whose body has
a tremor
Now (begins) the method (of the ordeal) of the heated mass (of gold)
Pitāmaha says
I shall declare the good method of the heated māṣa (of gold) in freeing
(men from accusations) (The judge) should have a round vessel of iron
or copper or clay made of sixteen angulas (in diameter) and four angulas
deep. He should get it filled with ghee and oil weighing twenty palas,
*when the latter (ghee and oil) are well heated (the judge) should then
cast in it a gold piece weighing a māṣaka ² He (the person performing
the ordeal) should take out the heated golden māṣaka with the thumb and
the fingers of his hand.³ If he does not jerk his fingers or there is no
scalded skin (when he takes out of the ghee and oil the heated piece,) he
whose fingers are uninjured should be declared to be innocent by virtue of
his righteousness.
The same author (Pitāmaha) describes another method (of this ordeal) ⁴
He (the judge) being pure should put cow s ghee in a vessel of gold
silver iron or clay and have it heated on fire He should cast into it a
beautiful seal-ring washed once with water and made of gold silver copper or
iron When (the ghee) is full of whirling ripples and bubbles and when it is
not capable of being touched (even) with the nails he should test it (i. e
whether it has reached the boiling point) with a green leaf so as to produce the
sound of churu ⁵ Then he should once repeat the following mantra by way
of invocation before it (the heated ghee) Thou art Oh ghee, the holiest thing

1. According to Nārada (ṛṇādāna 341) he should be made to spit on a leaf of
   aśvattha or bhūrja.
2. A golden māṣaka was equal to five kṛṣṇalas (guñjas)
3. The forefinger and the middle finger were to be joined to the thumb in taking out
   the heated piece of gold.
   4 These five verses are also Nārada (pp 119-120 vv 344-48)
   5 When ghee reaches the boiling point, if a green leaf were dipped into it, there
   would be a sound similar to the word charu This is the test for finding out whether the
   ghee has reached the boiling point.
   P. 34 (text).