Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c10.29

c10.29

The chief source about the proceedings to be observed on the occasion of the imposition of a penance is Āp. 2, 10, :12—16 along with the commentary. If a grown-up man has committed a sin, his spiritual advisor (*śāstr*) shall dictate to him a penance according to the rules of the Dharmaśāstra. If he does not perform the penance the Śāstr shall take him to the king and the latter shall refer him to his Purohita learned in law with the order to prescribe for him a proper penance. If he proves refractory even against the Purohita he shall be brought round to the resolution of performing the penance by means of confinement, starvation and other modes of compulsion, yet however without corporeal punishment or enslavement if he is a Brahman. Naturally this intervention of the king does not exclude the intervention on the part of the chiefs of the caste, who could impose the punishment of excommunication from the caste (tyāga) on the sinner who is unwilling to perform the penance (§ 38).