Caste and Race in India c8.17

c8.17

Baudhāyana allows a sane man of any of the four castes to be a competent witness in a legal proceeding.⁵ Vasiṣṭha's opinion is less decided. He observes: "Śrotriyas, men of unblemished form, of good character, men who are holy and love truth (are fit to be) witnesses. Or (men of) any (caste may give evidence) regarding (men of) any (other castes). Let him make women witnesses regarding women; for twice-born men, twice-born men of the same caste (shall be witnesses), and good Śūdras for Śūdras and men of low birth for low caste men."⁶ Kauṭilya prescribes for the four castes, different formulæ to be employed in addressing witnesses and in swearing them in.⁷ If a Śūdra committed theft, he had to pay back eight times the value of the property stolen. In the case of a Vaiśya thief, the penalty was doubled. A Kshatriya had to pay twice as much as a Vaiśya and a Brahmin four times. If a learned man committed theft, the punishment was very much increased.⁸ A man committing adultery with a woman of his caste had to undergo a certain penance.¹ Adultery with a woman of a higher caste entailed punishment, the severity of which increased with the caste-status of the woman violated.² It seems that illicit intercourse with females of lower castes by males of higher castes was not regarded in the nature of a serious offence. Only adultery with a low-caste woman was condemned as a heinous crime, the punishment for which was either banishment or degradation to the caste of the woman.³ If a Brahmin killed a Brahmin, he was to be banished from the kingdom with the mark of a headless trunk branded on his forehead; but if a man of any of the other three castes committed the same offence, the punishment was death and confiscation of all his property. For slaying a Kshatriya, a Vaiśya and a Śūdra the fine was a thousand, a hundred, and ten cows respectively with a bull for the expiation of the sin in each case.⁴ Even in the matter of taxation there seems to have been much inequality on the basis of caste. From Buddhist literature we gather that both the Kshatriyas and the Brahmins, though they owned the greater portion of the land, were free from taxes.⁵