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

S. V. 34-V. d 2 209
M. p. 108 l. 20-p 109 l. 14 ] SURETYSHIP
*Of sureties jointly and severally bound any one that is found may be
made to pay ( the whole debt ) If he be gone abroad his son may be
made to pay the whole; but if he be dead then his son shall pay
according to his father's share ( i e proportionate liability )
'Pitrams'āt' means ' in accordance with his father's share ( of the debt
guaranteed ) ' Yājñavalkya ( II 56 ) also says :
When a surety has been made to pay publicly ( the whole ) debt to
the creditor, the debtor should be made to return double the amount to
him ( or his son ).¹
Bṛhaspati ( p. 328 v. 44 ) says •
He, who being made a surety and being harassed ( by the creditor )
pays the suretyship debt, is entitled to receive ( from the original debtor )
twice the amount ( paid to the creditor ) after the lapse of three
fortnights.²
Now about the method to be followed by the creditor in
recovering debts
Bṛhaspati ( p⁻ 329 v. 54 ) says •
A debtor who acknowledges a debt to be due should be made to pay
by the expedients of coaxing and the rest, by appeal to dharma, by
artifice, by force ( or compulsion ) and by barring his house.
' Pratipannam ' ( in Bṛhaspati ) means ' admitted by the debtor ',
' upakramaiḥ ' means ' by expedients '. The same author ( Bṛhaspati p. 330
vv. 55-58 ) explains these ( terms, dharma etc. )
That is declared to be dharma ( expedient ) where a debtor is made
to repay by the advice ( or messages ) of friends and good kinsmen, by
coaxing words, by persistent following, or by importunate entreaties ( or
creditor's starvation ). When the creditor brings from the debtor
some object, borrowed on some pretext, or where the creditor retains an
anvāhita deposit and thus the debtor is made to pay, that is said to be
( the expedient of ) artifice ³ That‡ is declared to be compulsion where a

1. This applies only where the surety or his son is pressed by the creditor to pay and
   so pays. If the surety pays out of greed to secure double of what he pays, he would not get
   double.
2. If the debtor pays before three fortnights expire, the surety or his son would get only
   what he paid.
   3 ' Anvāhita ' is what a debtor hands over to a creditor for being delivered to a
   third person. The creditor retains such a deposit and thereby compels payment. ' Borrowed
   on some pretext '— i e. borrowing an ornament &c. for marriage or other festive
   occasion

• P. 178 ( text ). ‡ P. 179 ( text ).
  V. M. 27