The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.62

c21.62

where we sometimes come across the cases of Brāhmaṇas being executed by haughty tyrants.(43) But as against these rare cases of executions, we have several cases of even tyrannical rulers like Didda(44) and Bhikṣāchara(45) being compelled to accede to the requests of Brāhmaṇas, because they had threatened to commit suicide by fasting.(46) Here again the fear of the sin of Brahmahatyā seems to have been working on the minds of the rulers, who yielded to the demands of the Brāhmaṇas, who in many of the cases above referred to, it may be pointed out, were deputed by the oppressed subjects to get their grievances redressed through the threat of suicide by fasting. The privilege of immunity from taxation was conceded, as we have seen, only to the learned and pious Brāhmaṇas; one cannot be, however, certain that the immunity from the capital punishment was similarly restricted. It is, however, clear that Brāhmaṇas who had joined the army could not have claimed the privilege of avadhyatva, and it is not unlikely that others, who violated the scriptural rules by following a number of prohibited professions, may have been treated as ordinary persons.