Hindu Administrative Institutions c10.s1.22

c10.s1.22

The *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*,³ and the *Taittarīya Āraṇyaka*,⁴ enumerate a number of criminal offences which deserve the severest form of punishment. The thief caught in the act, the murderer of a Brahman, the defiler of the precepter’s bed, the drinker of spirituous liquors, the stealer of cows and gold, are all unpardonable crimes. The first text also speaks of the ordeal of the red-hot axe,⁵ perhaps used for suspected cases of theft. Inference is then irresistible that there was some sort of judicial procedure in vogue in the later period of the Vedic age.