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 1475

282
BRIHASPATI.
I, 31.
31. Judges are superior in authority to (meetings of) kindred and the rest; the chief judge is placed above them; and the king is superior to all, because he passes just sentences.
32. The insight of princes surpasses by far the understandings (of other persons), in the decision of the highest, lowest, and middling controversies.
33. They who are ignorant of the customs of the country, unbelievers, despisers of the sacred books, insane, irate, avaricious, or troubled (by pain or illness) should not be consulted in the decision of a cause.
34. A Brahman is the root of the tree of justice; the sovereign prince is its stem and branches ; the ministers are its leaves and blossoms; just government is its fruit.
35. Renown and wealth are the sap of its fruit ; a dignified station, invincibility, esteem among men, and an eternal residence in paradise is enjoying its fruit.
36. Having recognised these advantages in the pursuit of) justice, a king should be equitable towards litigants, and should pass a just sentence, discarding avarice and other (evil propensities).
II. GENERAL RULES OF PROCEDURE. 1. This legal procedure is declared, however, to be divided into a number of branches. Hear, now,
33. Smritik. desâkârânabhigha ye nâstikah sâstravargilahi unmattakruddhalubdhârta na prashtavyâ vinirnaye il
34-36. Viram. p. 14. Read bhogo: tha grahapüganam in 35; vivadinâm tyaktvå lobhadikam râgâ dharmyam in 36.
II, 1, 2. Vîram. p. 292.
Digitized by Google