Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c9.43

c9.43

Burnell however was right in saying that in all the Smṛtis an elaborate admixture of spiritual and worldly punishments is in evidence. Thus according to M. 9, 240 criminals of every class may escape the branding by the order of the king and pay only a fine if they perform the prescribed penance. On the other hand, it is said that "the criminals who have received their punishments from the king are purged of guilt and go to heaven Admixture of spiritual and temporal punishments. like holy men” (M. 8,318 ; Vas. 19, 45 ; Nār. App. 48) ; for this reason the thief who goes to the king with a club, confesses his crime and asks the king to strike him down to the ground is purified all the same whether the king acts according to this or grants him forgiveness ; though of course the sin of the thief in the latter case is transferred to the king (M. 8, 314 ff. etc.). According to Nār. 14, 11 in the case of the Sāhasas of the first and the second grades the criminal may again be received into his caste ; but he who has committed the Sāhasa of the highest grade shall for ever be excommunicated from his caste. Gaut. 23,14 f. and Mah. 12, 165, 64f. mention among Prāyaścittas a penance for adultery in which the woman is torn to pieces by a dog and the man is roasted on a bed of glowing iron. Usually (M. 8, 371f. etc.) this punishment is referred to in the criminal law. Also the branding of the great sinners (mahāpātakin), e. g. the murderer of a Brahman with the brand of a headless man, is always met with among the punishments inflicted by the king (Baudh. 1,18,18 ; Vi. 5, 3-7 etc.) ; according to M. 9, 236 however it takes place only subsidiarily in the place of a penance. Originally the Mahāpātakin, as even the name shows, certainly belonged only to the spiritual law. The blood-money (§44) on the other hand, has gone over to spiritual law from secular law.