Oaths and Ordeals in Dharmasastra (An Old and Rare Book)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda has a Series of publications called "M. S. University of Baroda Research Series". In this Series, we publish selected research works of high quality prepared by the teachers and students of this University.

The thesis "Oaths and Ordeals in Dharmasastra" by Dr. S. N. Pendse who worked for Ph.D. degree in the Department of Sanskrit now the Depart ment of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit in the Faculty of Arts, was approved for the award of the Ph.D. degree in Sanskrit in 1975, is now published in this Series.

We acknowledge with thanks the financial help received from the Univer sity Grants Commission towards this publication.

It is a matter of both pleasure and gratification that the thesis-" Oaths and Ordeals in Dharmassstra"-prepared under my guidance by Dr. S. N. Pendse and submitted for the degree of Ph.D. to the M. S. University of Baroda (1974) appears in a book-form.

The Oaths and Ordeals have played a very important role in the field of Judiciary as law of evidence. When the human agency fails, a recourse to divine means of proof becomes most inevitable. This principle of divine intervention (especially of the ordeals) has been found universal, as it is resorted to by practically all the civilizations of the world.

Dr. Pendse has, for the first time, made an attempt to present a learned study of the subject in all its aspects. I am the witness to his meticulous care and preserverance with which he had worked upon the subject for quite a long time.

In the present work he has presented a critical and comparative study of nine ordeals discussed in the works on the Dharmasastra and in the Puranas.

Dr. Pendse has not remained contented merely by giving useful information such as different views of various Smpti-writers, Commentators and Digest writers, but has thrashed out the subject completely by fully discussing it in its all possible aspects. He thus discusses first of all the form of an ordeal, then goes into the investigation of its origin and outlines its gradual development and finally gives general rules of its application. In a separate chapter (Ch. VIII). Dr. Pendse investigates the subject of ordeals from the social, anthropological, psychological and legal points of view.

In Appendix-1, Dr. Pendse gathers very useful information regarding the practice of oaths and ordeals as prevalent in some tribes of India.

This work, therefore, would prove most indispensable not merely to the students of Law and Jurisprudence, but also to the students of Sociology. Anthropology and Indian Culture in general.

I welcome present work most heartily and wish warm reception to it by the world of scholars, so that Dr. Pendse's labour could be amply rewarded.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages