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

52 VYAVAHĀRAMAYŪKHA
The two supports (or columns) were to be implanted in the ground
for two cubits.
Pitāmaha says
The balance (i. e. its beam) should be a square (log) firm and
straight and three (iron rings) should be fastened on to it with care.
The same author (Pitāmaha) says
After suspending from the two ends (of the beam of the balance) two
pans, he (the judge) should arrange on both the pans darbha grass with
their points turned towards the east. In the pan to the west he should
have the person (undergoing ordeal) weighed and in the other pure earth,
not mixed with bricks, ashes, stones, broken pieces of vessels or bones.
*Nārada (pp 105-106 vv 271-72) says
Having firmly suspended two pans from the two hooks attached to
(the two ends of the beam of the) balance, he should have the person
(undergoing ordeal) weighed in one pan and gravel (or stones) in the
other. He (the judge) should have the person (undergoing ordeal)
held in (the pan on) the northern side and stones on the southern; he
should have the basket (pan) filled with bricks, dust and lumps of earth.¹
The same author (Nārada p 262 vv 27-28) lays down the mode of
examining (a person by balance ordeal)
The examiners should bring the balance on the same level with the two
pendants² (hanging down from the two arches) and (a little) water
should be poured over the upper part of the (beam of the) balance by
clever men. That balance was to be known [as sama (perfectly hori-
zontal) on which the water so poured would not run down.
Pitāmaha describes the (suspending of) two pendants for (ascertaining the)
horizontal position (of the beam)
Two arches should also be raised on both sides of the beam. They
should always be ten aṅgulas higher than the balance. Two pendants
should be suspended hanging down from the arches tied with a string
and made of clay and touching the upper surface of the (beam of the)
balance.
1 Reading this verse with Pitāmaha it follows that bricks, dust and stones are not
totally forbidden as material for weighing the man against. What is forbidden is the
mixing together of all these. One may fill the pan either with earth or stones or bricks but
not with all together.
2 As said by Pitāmaha the two arches were to be one from the other at a distance
below which the person went in. They were to touch each other at the top. The
balance and from the arches two pendants of clay tied to an iron pin at the end of a fine
beam was to be kept in such a position that its condition could be easily perceived. v. s.
p. 25 (text).