History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.133.2

v2.c20.133.2

379-380) prescribes shaving of the head for brāhmaṇa offenders where others would have had to suffer the extreme penalty of death and adds that a brāhmaṇa was not to be sentenced to death whatever offence he might have committed and that he is to be banished from the country taking with him all his possessions. Even on this the Mit. (on Yāj. II. 81) observes that it applies only when it is the brāhmaṇa's first offence (i. e. he may be fined for repeating an offence). Yāj. (II. 270), Nārada (sāhasa, verse 10) and Śaṅkha³¹⁵ prescribe branding and banishment as punishment for brāhmaṇas (particularly in the case of theft). The brāhmaṇa was never above being fined. Manu (VIII. 123) prescribes fine and banishment for a perjured brāhmaṇa witness, while Manu VIII. 378 prescribes heavy fines for a brāhmaṇa guilty of rape or adultery. The Mit. on³¹⁶ Yāj. II. 302 quotes a verse of Manu (not found in the extant Manusmṛti) that in the case of the brāhmaṇa corporal punishment takes the form of complete shaving of the head, he is liable to banishment from the town, he may be branded on the forehead and he may be made to ride through the town on the back of an ass (looked upon at all times as the highest form of indignity). Kauṭ. also³¹⁷ (IV. 8) forbids corporal punishment for brāhmaṇas in all offences but prescribes branding on the forehead in the same way as Manu (IX. 237) and also banishment and labour on mines. But Kauṭ. makes an exception, viz.