History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.492.1

v4.c63.492.1

A few remarks will be made on each of the several modes of punishment. The sentence of death was, acc. to Kām. XIV. 16, Śukra IV. 1. 93, to be avoided even in the gravest offences except for the offence of subverting the state.⁶³⁷ Viṣṇu Dh. S. V. 1 provides that all persons except brāhmaṇas guilty of the mahāpātakas may be sentenced to death. But Manu IX. 236 says that this extreme penalty was to be awarded only if they performed no prāyaścitta. Kauṭ. (IV. 11) prescribes death sentence for causing the death of any one with a sharp weapon. Vṛddha-Hārīta (VII. 190) prescribes it for incendiaries, poisoners, murderers, robbers, bad characters, rogues and those guilty of grave sins. The death sentence was carried out in various ways such as by giving poison or by trampling at the feet of an elephant, or by a sharp weapon (like a sword), by being burnt or drowned⁶³⁸. Impalement was a punishment prescribed by Manu IX. 276 for thieves guilty of housebreaking by night (after first cutting off their hands), by Yāj. II. 273 for those who made another a captive or stole horses and elephants or killed another by the use of force and by Vṛddha-Hārīta VII. 202 for the murderer of a brāhmaṇa or for one who killed a woman, a child or a cow. Death sentence by being trampled under the feet of an elephant continued up to the times of the Marathas. The Daśakumāracarita 4th Ucchvāsa shows that a thief could be trampled upon by an elephant by way of punishment.