History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.283

v5.c71.s1.283

It has already been stated above (n 180) that the prāyaścitta to be undergone depended upon many circumstances such as the time, the place, the age &c. And first as to age, several smṛtis¹⁸⁹ provide that a man 80 years old or a boy less than 16 years of age, women and diseased persons should be liable only to half the prāyaścitta (prescribed for able-bodied men). The Mit on Yāj. III 243 quotes a verse of Sumantu that for a male below twelve and above eighty years of age the penance is half (of that for ordinary men) and one-fourth for women within the same limits and a verse of Viṣṇu that for women, old men and diseased persons half the penance should be prescribed and for boys (before upanayana) only one-fourth. Some say that for boys less than five the penance is one-fourth Cyavana (prose) prescribes half prāyaścitta for boys, old men and women and declares that a person is a *bāla* up to 16 years and a man is to be regarded as similar to a *bāla* after 70. Kātyāyana provided generally that the fines to be levied from females were to be half of those leviable from male offenders as regards all offences and when the punishment for a male would be death, a woman criminal was to be punished with the cutting of a limb (nose, ears &c.)¹⁹⁰