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

ORDEALS 55
Vāysa says :
When the pan breaks, or when the beam of the balance or the two
hooks break, when the ropes give way or the transverse beam (or the
support) gives way, the king should then again resort to purification (by
the same ordeal)
But this applies to cases where the breaking is due to some visible cause;
when however the breaking is purely accidental, (the person undergoing
ordeal) is certainly guilty, as declared in another smṛti
When the pans or the beam of the balance or the hooks or the ropes
or the transverse beam breaks, the king should declare the guilt (of the
man weighed)
Kakṣa means 'the bottom of the scales'; akṣa means 'the support of the
balance placed across the columns' The older writers (or eastern writers)
say that only the weighing is to be repeated and not the whole procedure;
but Madana says that the whole procedure is to be repeated (at the time of
the second weighing) because the defect (in the act of purification by
ordeal) is not removed in this way (by mere repetition of the weighing)¹
*Now (begins) the procedurs of the rites (of the balance ordeal). The
person, who is to perform the ordeal, should on an auspicious day in the
morning approach one of the trees referred to above, should cut the tree with
the mantra 'oh herb, save this person' (Vāj. S 4 1.), should mutter (the
mantra) 'somo dhenum' (Ṛg I. 91 20) (of which) Gautama (is
the sage), Soma (the deity), Triṣṭubh (is the metre) and (which) is
employed in japa (muttering of prayers) and the mantra 'Oh tree, (grow)
with a hundred branches' (Ṛg III 8. 11) of which Gāthina Viśvāmitra,
vanaspati, triṣṭubh (are respectively the sage, the deity and the metre)
and which is employed in japa. After having bowed to the lokapālas viz.
Indra and the rest one by one, he should erect a balance, (with a beam)
four cubits long, of the thickness of four aṅgulas, having four faces, rounded
in the middle and at the ends and (with a diameter) of four aṅgulas,
having in the middle on its upper surface and at the two ends but on their
lower surface three hooks or rings Then some say that he should construct
a place seven or five cubits square raised (from the ground) to the extent
of four aṅgulas Then on that (raised) spot or on any other purified
place two square pillars six cubits long should be driven into the ground to
the extent of two cubits, having pared tops beyond the length of six cubits
(on which the transverse beam was to be placed from which the whole
balance was to be suspended) Above the ground four cubits (of the

1. The view of Madana is in accordance with the Kātyāyana-śrauta-sūtra I. 7. 28.
   It is not clear what view Nīlakaṇṭha himself holds He merely places the two views in
   juxtaposition. But from the fact that he places Madana's view last and since he generally
   follows the Madanaratna it may be inferred that he held the latter view,

• P. 62 (text)