I. BOOK private house, and even keeps him for a period without food and exposed to the sun, to compel him to produce the money he owes. Interest of money, Contracts. Sale with out owner ship. Interest varies from 2 per cent. per mensem for a Bramin to 5 per cent. for a Súdra. It is reduced to one half when there is a pledge, and ceases altogether if the pledge can be used for the profit of the lender. P There are rules regarding interest on money lent on bottomry for sea voyages, and on similar risk by land; and others for preventing the accumulation of interest on money above the original amount of the principal. Various rules regarding sureties for personal ap pearance and pecuniary payments, as well as regarding contracts, are introduced under this head. Fraudulent contracts, and contracts entered into for illegal purposes, are null. A contract made, even by a slave, for the support of the family of his absent master, is binding on the master." A sale by a person not the owner is void, unless made in the open market; in that case it is valid if the purchaser can produce the seller, otherwise the right owner may take the property on paying half the value.* A trader breaking his promise is to be fined; or, if it was made on oath, to be banished.' P Chap. VIII. 140—143. 9 Chap. VIII. 151. 156, 157. 8 Chap. VIII. 197-202. III. A sale may be unsettled by either party within CHAP. ten days after it is made, but not later." between Disputes between master and servant refer al- Disputes most entirely to herdsmen and their responsibilities master and about cattle.* servant. about Boundaries of villages are to be marked by na- Disputes tural objects, such as streams, or by planting trees, boundaries. digging ponds, and building temples along them, as well as by other open marks above ground, and secret ones buried in the earth. In case of disputes, witnesses are to be examined on oath, in the presence of all the parties concerned, putting earth on their heads, wearing chaplets of red flowers, and clad in red garments. If the question cannot be settled by evidence, the King must make a general inquiry and fix the boundary by authority. The same course is to be adopted about the boundaries of private fields." between The rules regarding man and wife are full of Relations puerilities; the most important ones shall be stated man and after a short account of the laws relating to marriage. Six forms of marriage are recognised as lawful. Of these, four only are allowed to Bramins, which (though differing in minute particulars) all agree in insisting that the father shall give away his daughter without receiving a price. The remain wife. I. BOOK ing two forms are permitted to the military class alone, and are abundantly liberal even with that limitation. One is, when a soldier carries off a woman after a victory, and espouses her against her will; and the other, when consummation takes place by mutual consent, without any formal ceremony whatever. Two sorts of marriage are forbidden when the father receives a nuptial present"; and when the woman, from intoxication, or other cause, has been incapable of giving a real consent to the union.a A girl may be married at eight; and, if her father fails to give her a husband for three years after she is marriageable, she is at liberty to choose one for herself. Men may marry women of the classes below them, but on no account of those superior to their own. A man must not marry within six known degrees of relationship on either side, nor with any woman whose family name, being the same, shows her to be of the same race as his own. The marriage of people of equal class is performed by joining hands; but a woman of the military class, marrying a Bramin, holds an arrow There is, however, throughout the Code, a remarkable wavering on this head, the acceptance of a present being in general spoken of with disgust, as a sale of the daughter, while, in some places, the mode of disposing of presents so received, and the claims arising from them, are discussed as legal points. Chap. III. 12—19. a Chap. III. 20-34. in her hand'; a Veisya woman a whip; and a СНАР. Súdra, the skirt of a mantle." The marriage of equals is most recommended, for the first wife at least: that of a Bramin with a' Súdra is discouraged; and, as a first wife, it is positively forbidden." Marriage is indissoluble, and the parties are bound to observe mutual fidelity. From the few cases hereafter specified, in which the husband may take a second wife, it may be inferred that, with those exceptions, he must have but one wife. A man may marry again on the death of his wife; but the marriage of widows is discouraged, if not prohibited (except in the case of Súdras). A wife who is barren for eight years, or she who has produced no male children in eleven, may be superseded by another wife." It appears, notwithstanding this expression, that the wife first married retains the highest rank in the family. g Drunken and immoral wives, those who bear malice to their husbands, or are guilty of very great extravagance, may also be superseded." A wife who leaves her husband's house, or neglects him for a twelvemonth, without a cause, may be deserted altogether." 4 Chap. III. 44. h Chap. IX. 80. VOL. I. e Chap. IX. 46, 47. 101, 102. 8 Chap. IX. 122. i Chap. IX. 77-79. F III. BOOK Inherit ance. A man going abroad must leave a provision for his wife.k The wife is bound to wait for her absent husband for eight years, if he be gone on religious duty; six, if in pursuit of knowledge or fame; and three, if for pleasure only.' The practice of allowing a man to raise up issue to his brother, if he died without children, or even if (though still alive) he have no hopes of progeny, is reprobated, except for Súdras, or in case of a widow who has lost her husband before consummation.m The natural heirs of a man are the sons of his body, and their sons, and the sons of his daughter, appointed in default of heirs male to raise up issue to him." The son of his wife, begotten by a near kinsman, at some time when his own life had been despaired of, according to the practice formerly noticed, (which, though disapproved of as heretical, would k Chap. IX. 74. 1 Chap. IX. 76. Culluca, in his Commentary, adds, "after those terms she must follow him;" but the Code seems rather to refer to the term at which she may contract a second marriage. From the contradictions in the Code regarding marriages of widows (as on some other subjects) we may infer that the law varied at different places or times; or rather, perhaps, that the writer's opinion and the actual practice were at variance. The opinion against such marriages prevails in modern times, and must have done so to a great extent in that of Culluca. |