Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c9.93

c9.93

In point of fact the fines are mentioned most frequently in the Smṛtis in connection with the rules of punishment, either graded in the manner already referred to or otherwise in fixed amounts, or without any mention of amounts, or in relatively fixed amounts, i. e. fixed according to the value of the disputed property. Perpetrators of grave crimes suffer confiscation of their whole property, yet in such cases the weapons of a warrior, the instruments of a musician and the implements necessary for earning livelihood cannot be laid hold on (Nār. 18, 10 f.). In the case of mutilation and execution, as in other ancient systems of punishment, the principle of retaliation (Talion) as well as symbolical punishments come into play. The offender or the robber shall lose that limb with which he assaults or injures anybody. The slanderous tongue shall be torn out, the adulterous limb shall be cut off, the hand raised for a blow or the foot raised for kicking shall be cut off, red-hot iron shall be pushed into the mouth of the slanderous Śūdra or boiling oil shall be poured into his mouth and ears, and for a stolen property many times the same has to be paid by way of fine. The lips which spit on a man out of hatred and the thievish finger of a pickpocket shall be cut off. The adulterer shall be roasted on a red-hot bed of iron and he who pierces a dike shall be drowned. Moreover, the brandmarking of the murderer of a Brahman with the figure of a headless man, of the drinker with the flag of a tavern and of the incestuous person with the mark of feminine pudendum are also symbolical.