Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c7.s6.t2.22

c7.s6.t2.22

Punishments for robbery were of various kinds, amongst which imprisonment, mutilation and death penalty were the chief. We are told that when the robber Vijaya carried off the daughter of the merchant Dhanna, the latter approached the city police (nagaraguttiya) with large presents and lodged a complaint. The police officers, clad in mail coats, duly armed with bow, arms and weapons, started in search of the robber. They reached an old garden and discovered the corpse of the girl in a well. Following the foot-marks of the robber the police reached the mālukā thicket and put the robber under arrest. They showered blows on him with fists, elbows, knees and sticks, tied his hands behind his neck, suspended the ornaments of the deceased girl on his neck and brought him to the town. They marched him on the roads beating him with thong, cane and whip (kasa-laya-chiva), throwing over him ashes, dust and filth proclaiming to the citizens his crime of murdering the child. They then put him into prison where his feet were tied in a wooden frame (haḍibandhana), deprived him of food and drink and beat him with lashes thrice a day. The robber died in course of time.³⁰