* 198. 198 (The judge), after having summoned all the witnesses, and bound them down firmly by an oath, shall examine them separately. (They should be men) of tried integrity and conversant with the circumstances of the case.
199. 199 Let him cause a priest to swear by Truth, a Kshatriya by his riding animal and weapons, a Vaisya by his cows, grain, or gold, a Sûdra by all sorts of crimes.
* 200. By ancient sacred texts, extolling the excellence of Truth, and denouncing the sinfulness of Falsehood, let him inspire them with deep awe.
201. 201 He who gives false testimony as a witness will enter his enemy's house, naked, with his head shorn, tormented with hunger and thirst, and deprived of sight, to beg food with a potsherd.
202. Naked, with his head shorn, with a potsherd (for a begging-bowl), standing hungry before the door
204. 204 A witness who wavers in giving evidence is sure to be fettered with a thousand bonds from the chain of Varuna.
205. After the lapse of a hundred years, the cord is taken off him. When he is free from the cord, the man becomes a woman.
206. Thus is a man liberated from this fixed bondage. * Now I will state, in order, how many kinsmen a false witness kills,
* 207. 207 If his evidence concerns, respectively, (small) cattle, cows, horses, human beings, gold, and land. Listen to me, my friend.
91:198 198-228. Manu VIII, 79-101; Yâgñavalkya II, 73-75; Vishnu VIII, 19-37; Gautama XIII, 12-23; Âpastamba II, 11, 29, 7-10; Baudhâyana I, 19, 10-12; Vasishtha XVI, 32-34. Böhtlingk's Indische Sprüche.
91:199 Identical with Manu VIII, 113. See, too, Manu VIII, 88. The commentators of the Code of Manu give various explanations of the latter verse. It may mean that a false witness is threatened with the guilt of all offences committed against riding animals, cows, grain, &c.; or with the guilt of stealing riding animals, &c.; or with their loss; or that the judge shall exhort witnesses to touch a cow, &c.
91:201 201, 202. Manu VIII, 93; Vasishtha XVI, 33.
92:203 This sentiment shows that the condition of a superseded wife under Hindu law must have been far from enviable. This is equally shown by the custom of presenting a certain sum to her on her supersession by another wife. See Vishnu XVII, 18; Yâgñavalkya II, 143.
92:204 The snaky 'bonds of Varuna' seem to be an equivalent for dropsy, a disease attributed to the influence of the ancient divinity Varuna. See Professor Bühler's note on Manu VIII, 82.
92:207 'Kills,' i.e. sends to hell. This interpretation is given by the majority of Manu's commentators. According to others, it means 'causes to fall from heaven and to be reborn in the wombs of animals,' or 'incurs a guilt as great as if he had killed.' See Professor Bühler's note on Manu VIII, 97. The idea that a man, by telling a falsehood, ruins his kinsmen as well as himself, belongs to the remotest antiquity, and recurs in the Zendavesta. See Vendîdâd IV, 24 seq.; Jolly, translation of Book VIII of the Code of Manu, note.
207-209. Nearly identical with Manu VIII, 97-99, &c.
95:228 'Theft' is a very wide term under the Hindu law. The Code of Manu includes in the denomination of theft, forgery of documents and of coins, unlawful sales, and dishonesty generally. For hitâm one might read hi tam, 'For he who steals speech.' Manu IV, 256.
