The Mauryan Polity c8.s4.t3.45

c8.s4.t3.45

A survey of the cases that came within the purview of the criminal law-court shows the combination of police functions with magisterial duties. Much of the police control was by means of informants who sometimes acted as agents provocateurs. One of the functions assigned to these informants was the shadowing of the suspected, and in this respect it resembles that of the modern secret police organisation. The procedure prescribed for investigating cases of theft and homicide¹ is a test to prove the perfect organisation of the judicial department. In regard to suicide committed by men or women, equal punishment was awarded. The idea was to check such a heinous offence as far as possible. Neither burial nor cremation was allowed. The bodies of persons who committed suicide were exposed on thoroughfares by having them drawn on public roads by caṇḍālas and were cast away uncared for.² Thus the seemingly arbitrary punishment was to put down such crimes as they would otherwise become numerous.