Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1276

I, 163
INCOMPETENT WITNESSES.
83
gamblers, assassins, are incompetent on account of their depravity ; there is no truth to be found in them.
160. If the statements of witnesses, who have all been summoned by the king for the decision of the same cause, do not agree, they are rendered incompetent by contradiction.
*161. He who, without having been appointed to be a witness, comes of his own accord to make a deposition, is termed a spy in the law-books; he is unworthy to bear testimony.
*162. Where can (any person) bear testimony if the claimant is no longer in existence, whose claim should have been heard? Such a person is an incompetent witness by reason of intervening decease.
*163. If two persons quarrel with one another,
162. Supposing a man were to claim a certain sum from another and to name a witness, whom he states to have witnessed the transaction. If the soi-disant creditor should die, it would be impossible to ascertain whether the statement of the witness is true or false. Therefore such a witness must not be admitted by reason of intervening decease. A.
163. A claimant declares, This bull, which you have got, is mine. He was stolen by thieves, who took seven cows along with him. If they are found among your property, they may be known by a red mark on the forehead, or by their white feet, or by other signs.... I am able to adduce four witnesses who will declare them to be mine.' The opponent replies, Pragapati (the Creator) has created many two-legged and four-legged beings closely resembling one another. If a superficial likeness is to be considered as evidence, I might take another man's wife into my house, because she has eyebrows, ears, a nose, eyes, a tongue, hand, and feet like my wife. This bull is born and bred in my own house. I am able to adduce four witnesses from the village in which he is being kept ; their statements will establish the fact that he belongs to me.' In a dispute of this sort the witnesses of him who was the first to bring the suit into court will decide the suit. A. Yagñavalkya II, 17; Vishnu VIII, 10.
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