History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.957

v4.c63.957

Various rules were laid down about inciters or abettors. Yāj. II. 231 and Kaut.⁹⁷¹ III. 17 prescribe for the man who incites another to crimes of violence double the punishment to be inflicted on the perpetrator himself and four times for one who incites another by assuring him ‘I shall give as much money as will be required’. Kāt. (798) and Bṛ.⁹⁷² (S. B. E. 33 p. 363 vers 31) prescribe that if several violently beat a man to death, he who gives the fatal blow on a vital part is declared to be the murderer and is to suffer the full punishment for murder. Kāt. (832-834)⁹⁷³ and Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 364 verse 32) provide that he who commences a crime of violence, who is a helper, who gives advice as to the way (in which *sāhasa* is to be carried out), who gives refuge (asylum) to the offender or supplies weapons, who gives food to wrongdoers, who incites (offenders) to put up a fight, who shows how the person (killed) is to be destroyed, who connives (at the commission of an offence), who exposes the faults (of the person killed), who gives his approval (to the offence), who though able does not forbid or prevent the commission of the offence—all these are (practically) perpetrators of the crime and the king should award punishment according to their ability and their guilt. Vide also Ap. Dh. S. II. 11. 29. 1.⁹⁷⁴ For those who begin an offence or abet its commission Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 364 verse 32) prescribes half the punishment prescribed for the wrongdoer.⁹⁷⁵ Yāj. (II. 232-242) enumerates several kinds of offences as allied to *sāhasa* and prescribes punishments therefor, such as breaking a house that is closed under seal, causing harm to neighbours and *kulikas* (one's agnates), abandoning one's parents or sons or brothers or sisters even though they be not *patita*, sexual intercourse with a widow, (intentional) defilement of the higher castes by cāṇḍālas, making counter-feit coins or false weights and measures, giving quack medicines to royal officers or other men. These are all passed over here.