History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.862

v4.c63.t2.862

Manu XI. 89 provides that if a person intentionally murders a brāhmaṇa there is no expiation for it. Manu XI. 90 prescribes death by drinking boiling wine for the sin of drinking *surā*, while Manu XI. 146 provides¹⁸²⁴ that if a man knowingly drinks wine there is no expiation for it, but only death. The Viṣṇudharmasūtra (chap. 34) states that incest with the mother, daughter or daughter-in-law is *atipātaka*, such sinners have to enter fire and there is no other penance for this sin. Vide Gaut. 21. 7 also. Some smṛtis held that there was no prāyaścitta for certain grave sins except falling from a precipice or into fire. As a brāhmaṇa's person became more and more sacred with the march of time, death ceased to be a penance for a brāhmaṇa sinner, however grave the sin might be. But this did not apply to a kṣatriya or any one else (other than a brāhmaṇa).