Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c9.36

c9.36

Even to this day the excommunication out of the caste is effected by the ceremony of Ghaṭasphoṭa¹, and even to this day it is everywhere feared although the effects thereof falling into the sphere of civil law have been abrogated by an act of English law in 1850, and the re-admission of the culprit into society, excepting in the case of the gravest crime, may take place if he submits to the judgment given on him and pays a fine. So long as the period of excommunication continues the excommunicated person cannot eat together with any one of the members of his caste, cannot get the services of the spiritual advisor, the washerman and the barber of the village and with his whole family is excluded from connubium with his caste.² Dubois 28 f. lucidly describes the humiliating proceedings to which the excommunicated person has to submit himself in order to obtain his re-admission into the caste. In the mediaeval age the Hindus who were able to run away from the slavery of Mohammedans had to fast in their house, lie for a long time in a mixture of cowdung, cow's urine and milk and to use it as food before they could again be taken into their caste.¹