Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c9.73

c9.73

Impaling as the punishment for theft is found also in literature, as in Mah. 1, 63, 92. The gradation of the punishment according to the value of the stolen property and the three grades of culpability was known also to Alberuni 162; he says that in the case of the theft of particularly valuable properties culprits of the Brahman caste are blinded and a hand and a foot are hacked off by way of punishment, Kṣatriyas are mutilated without being blinded and the culprits of lower castes are punished by death. According to Hodgson death sentence is still given in Nepal for stealing properties of great value or in the case of repeated theft; in less serious cases only mutilation and heavy fines are inflicted. According to Dubois¹ mutilation was in vogue also in Mysore; the owner received only a portion of the stolen property recovered from the thief while the king and his officers got the lion's share. Even to this day in Bombay the chief of a locality has to pay compensation for what has been stolen within his jurisdiction ².