Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c9.86

c9.86

over it makes all the difference if the adulteress was properly guarded (*guptā*) or not, because if necessary surveillance was lacking the sentence will be mild and particular importance is attached also to the question if violence was applied. Thus for adultery with the wife of an Aryan the Śudra shall have his organ cut off and his property confiscated and if the woman was under guard he shall also be executed (Gaut. 12, 2 f. etc.). On the other hand a Brahman for a similar crime has to pay only a fine of 500 paṇas if the woman was willing, and 1000 paṇas in the case of forcible violation (M. 8, 378 etc.); for a Kṣatriya and a Vaiśya there are proportionally higher punishments aggravated by incarceration, shaving of hair and the pouring of urine on the head (M. 8, 375 ff. etc.). A similar gradation is found in the sentences for the defloration of a maiden; the fines are lowest in the case of forced sexual intercourse with courtesans and female slaves, and they are higher in the case of unnatural sexual intercourse with a cow (Y. 2, 288—291 etc.). Moreover, secret conversation at a bathing place, in a wood or in any improper place in general at any improper time and particularly sending flowers, ornaments and other presents, touching, pranks and jokes etc., are considered to be adulterous actions (Nār. 12, 62—68 etc.). A particularly grave crime which is punished by castration is the criminal intercourse with the wife of the spiritual initiator and incest with mother, sister and other female relations and sexual intercourse with a queen, a nun (*parivrājikā*), a nurse, a pious woman, a Brāhmaṇī etc. is also considered to be no less heinous a crime (Nār. 12, 73—75 etc.) but this crime rather belongs to the sphere of religious law. Intercourse with a woman of the lowest caste is also heavily punished (Y. 2, 289, 294 etc.) and the abortion of the foetus is punished in the same manner (Y. 2, 277). Public punishments are imposed on adulteresses but in most cases only if their crime is exceptionally flagrant; they are then sentenced to a cruel death (M. 8,371; Vi. 5,18 etc.); ordinarily merely the insulted husband or the insulted family inflicted the proper punishment on the adulteress (cf. § 19).