History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.492.2

v4.c63.492.2

Vide 'Selections from Peshwa's Daftar' (edited by Mr. G. S. Sardesai) vol. 43 No. 143 p. 114 (dated 7-9-1775 A. D.), where out of seven dacoits of the *Berad* caste two were ordered to be trampled to death at the feet of an elephant⁶³⁹ and five were ordered to be simply beheaded. Death sentence is said by the Daṇḍaviveka (p. 20) to be simple *śuddha*), which is of two kinds, *avicitra* when the offender is beheaded (with a sword), and *citra* or *vicitra* (when the offender is impaled or burnt) and it is *miśra* (when his hands or feet or other limbs are cut off and then he is killed)⁶⁴⁰. Simple death is prescribed by Manu IX. 271 for those who abet thieves by giving them subsistence, instruments of house-breaking or asylum. If a man of a low caste had sexual intercourse with a woman of a higher caste (with or without her consent) or kidnapped a maiden he was to be sentenced to death (Manu VIII. 366, Yāj. II. 286-288, 294). Vas. XXI. 1-5 prescribed for a śūdra, vaiśya or kṣatriya guilty of adultery with a brāhmaṇa woman the horrible punishment of being burnt to death after being respectively covered with *vīraṇa* grass, with red *darbhas* and *śara* leaves respectively and similar punishment for a śūdra paramour of a kṣatriya or vaiśya woman and for a vaiśya paramour of a kṣatriya woman. The consenting woman (adulteress) was, acc. to Vas. XXI.