History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.905.3

v4.c63.905.3

286 and Uśanas⁹³⁶ lay down that the punishment for the offence should be commensurate with the pain or injury caused by the offender to a man or beast. A few examples may be set out. Probably the oldest reference to fines for assault in Sanskrit literature is contained in the Taittirīya Saṁhitā⁹³⁷ II. 6. 10. 2: ‘He who threatens to strike a brāhmaṇa shall be fined with a hundred (cows or niṣkas?), he who strikes a brāhmaṇa shall be fined with a thousand; he who draws blood from him shall not behold the *pitṛs* for as many years as there are particles of dust mixed with the blood that falls on them’. This passage is interpreted in Jai. III. 938 4. 17 as being a recommendatory injunction (*puruṣārtha*) to all at all times to desist from assaulting a brāhmaṇa. Gaut. (21. 20–22) and Manu XI. 206–207 appear to take the Tai. S. passage differently and refer the figures of 100 and 1000 to years. Kauṭ. III. 19 prescribes various fines for various kinds of assaults. Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 357 verses 2, 3 and 7) says that if a person throws ashes or the like at another or beats him with the hand the fine should be one *māṣa*, but if he strikes with a brick, stone or stick the fine should be two *māṣakas*; this however applies when both are of the same caste, but if he assaults a woman who is another's wife or a person of a higher caste, the fine may be higher and higher.