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Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t7: II. Crime and Punishment

Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jātaka Stories c4.t7

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English

II. Crime and Punishment

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We have noted above the nature of some of the cases and offences that came up for trial and the punishments awarded therein. It is not always possible to connect offences and punishments. Drinking is sometimes punished with heavy fines.⁵ Some wine-merchants, accused of poison-making, are once ordered to be executed by the king.⁶ Slander was punished with a fine of 8 kahāpaṇas.⁷ Adultery in woman (that in man is never referred to as something punishable) was punishable with "death, imprisonment, mutilation or even cleaving asunder."⁸

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⁵ J., I, p. 199.

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⁶ J., V, p. 14.

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⁷ J., I, p. 483.

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⁸ J., V, p. 444; also J. II, p. 309.

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Punishments were of various kinds: fines, imprisonment, 'mutilation' banishment and death penalty—vadha-bandhana-chejja-bhejja.⁹ Of the four robbers brought before a king, one is sentenced to receive a thousand strokes from whips barbed with thorns, another to be imprisoned in chains, a third to be smitten with a spear and the fourth to be impaled.¹⁰ Confiscation of property was not uncommon.¹¹ Trampling the criminals to death under the feet of elephants may have been in vogue.¹ But such cruel and harsh punishments were resorted to in the case of tried thieves and robbers. Some offenders were sometimes banished from their country in great humiliation, with all their property confiscated to the State or were ordered to live in the Caṇḍāla settlement.² Shaving the heads of criminals was regarded as a great punishment.³

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⁹ J., V, pp. 245-6, 444. Cf. Arthaśāstra, IV, 2; R. E., V; P. E., IV.

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¹⁰ J., VI, p. 3. "Tasmin Khane caṭṭāro corā ānītā, tesu ekassa sakaṇṭakāhi kāsāhi pahā-rasahassam āṇāpesi, ekassa saṃkhalikābandhanāgārassa pavesanaṃ, ekassa sarīre sattipahā-radānaṃ, ekassa sūlāropanaṃ."

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¹¹ J., V, p. 357 "gharavilopanam"

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¹ J., I, p. 200.

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² J., VI, p. 156.

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³ Ibid., p. 135—G. 588. This and such other punishments to disgrace the man in the eye of the public have been resorted to throughout history. Megasthenes mentions cropping of the hair as a punishment. Fragment, xxvii. They are still practised. On these methods of punishment and disgrace, see Kalipada Mitra, J.B.O.R.S., xx, pp. 80-6, who treats the subject from a folklorist's point of view. That such practices persist even to-day is proved by some incidents witnessed by the above writer.

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Thefts and highway robberies were, as we said before, very common in those days. And it is not at all unnatural that the Jātaka kings very often deal very harshly with these criminals. It seems that no legal procedure, even of the kind of which we have noticed before, was gone through in such cases. Summary justice by the king seems to have been the ordinary course. Whenever a thief was found out,⁴ he was first of all belaboured by the people themselves, and then dragged before the king for punishment.⁵ At least sometimes thorough investigation is carried out to find out the criminal, such as shutting all the city-gates and searching the suspected places.⁶ Fetters for a thief were current.⁷ Though such statements in the summary justice by the king as "off with him, impale him on the stake"⁸ are parts of the fanciful stories, it is nevertheless certain that such inhuman punishments as impaling the criminal on a wooden stake⁹ and the execution by axe¹⁰ were not uncommon. This whole system of execution and the office of the Executioner (Coraghātaka) seems to present¹¹ a realistic picture through the description of the stories which we should note.

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⁴ Corā dhanassa patthenti—Thieves ever watch to steal our wealth—seems to have been a common cry of the people, J. VI, p. 28-G. 120.

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⁵ J., II, p. 122.

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⁶ J., II, pp. 122-3; III, p. 436, 461.

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⁷ J., I, pp. 370, 500.

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⁸ J., I, p. 371 : IV, p. 29.

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⁹ J., III, p. 34; IV, p. 29; VI, p. 3 (Sūlāropaṇam) Cf. Manu, VIII, 320.

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¹⁰ J., II, p. 124; III, pp. 41, 178-9; V, p. 303.

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¹¹ The executioners are also known as Kāsāviyā; J. III, p. 41; IV, p. 447.—GG. 193, 197.

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When a person was to be announced as to be executed, special execution-drum (vajjabherī) was beaten.¹² The condemned man was tightly bound, his hands behind his back, and a garland of red flowers (kaṇṇavera vajjamālā) was placed around his neck. He was sprinkled with brick-dust on his head and then, scourged with whips on every square (catukka), was led away through the South gates, to the place of execution (āghāṭa) to the music of harsh-sounding drum.¹³

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¹² J., I, p. 500; II, p. 123; III, pp. 59, 436; IV, p. 191. Cf. the figure of this condemned man in the Mṛcchakaṭikam.

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¹³ J., I, p. 500; II, p. 123; III, pp. 59, 436; IV, p. 191. Cf. the figure of this condemned man in the Mṛcchakaṭikam.

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The figure of the *Coraghātaka* is as distinct as it is cruel. A hatchet (*pharasu*) on his shoulder, and a thorny rope (*kaṇṭakakasan*) in his hand, dressed in a yellow robe (*Kāsāyanivāsano*) and adorned with a red garland (*rattlamā-lādharo*) he accompanied the horrible procession and prepared himself for his cruel task.¹ There in the place of execution (*āgāṭam*) the condemned person was placed within the fatal circle (*dhammagaṇḍikam*) and the axe did its deed.² Such savage sentences were a prominent sign of those early days when society and government were not so well organised and well advanced as to deal with all such problems in a proper manner. They may have survived in the Middle Ages, but have greatly been lessened in their severity with the march of progress in modern times. The main force in giving such harsh and inhuman punishments in those days is set forth by Bertrand (now Lord) Russel while discussing the current movements towards the betterment of society. Says he: "Severity of punishment arose through vindictiveness and fear in an age when many criminals escaped justice altogether, and it was hoped that savage sentences would outweigh the chance of escape in the mind of the criminal."³

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¹ J., III, pp. 41, 178-9; V, p. 303.

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² J., III, p. 41; IV, p. 176. A curious idea is embodied in a *gāthā*, no 138] (repeated in no. 1407) of J., VI, p. 315 which says: "The victim should not address the executioner, nor should the latter ask the victim to address him."

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³ *Roads to Freedom*, London, 1928, p. 135.

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Let us now peep a little through the jail administration of those days. Regular prisons—*bandhanāgārāṇi*—did exist.⁴ But we do not know what kind of offenders were imprisoned or how the period of imprisonment was apportioned in accordance with the seriousness of the offence. Learned and trusted ministers are once thrown into prison for plotting against the life of an innocent man,⁵ for what term we are not told. As to the life of the prisoners, it was very hard indeed. They were bound in chains of iron (*San-khalikābandhanam*).⁶ The sad and miserable plight of a released prisoner is taken as a standard of comparison (*nikkaḥmaṇakālo viya*) for a person who has not bathed for days together, nor rinsed his mouth nor performed any bodily ablutions.⁷ The stories seem to suggest that the prisoners were wholly at the mercy of the king—their life and death were in his hands. A king, in order to save his own life from a *yakkha*, promised to send to him one man daily as his food. His ministers encouraged him by saying "Be not troubled, there are many men in the jail." The king at once began to send one prisoner daily, and after a time the jails became empty.⁸ In the same way in another place⁹ the prisoners are murdered.

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⁴ J., I, p. 385; III, pp. 326, 392; V, p. 459; VI, pp. 3, 387, 388, 427.

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⁵ J., VI, p. 387-8.

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⁶ J., VI, p. 427.

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⁷ J., VI, p. 8. *Cf. Manu*, ix. 288.

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⁸ J., III, p. 326 "*mā cintayithā, bahu bandhanāgāre manussā ti....aparabhāge bandha-nāgārāṇi nimmanussāni jātāni.*"

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⁹ J., V, p. 459.

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In case of emergency, even the prisons were thrown open and the released thieves and robbers were employed as warriors and fighting-men against an enemy.¹

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¹ J., VI, p. 427.

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On certain special occasions also like the return of a prince from Takka-silā² or his marriage and coronation,³ or on festivals,⁴ general release of prisoners was declared by beat of drum (*bandhanamokkho ghosito*).⁵

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² J., IV, p. 176.

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³ J., V, p. 285; VI, p. 156-G. 746.

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⁴ J., VI, p. 327-G. 1444 "ye keci baddhā mama atthi raṭṭhe sabbe va te bandhanā mocay-antu." Also ibid, p. 592-G. 2467.

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⁵ Cf. Arthaśāstra, II, 36; Aśoka's P. E. V.

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Obviously, the hard and dehumanising treatment of the prisoners was, as is even now, intended to serve as a deterrent. To quote Bertrand Russel again: "the object of the prison administration is to save trouble, not to study the individual case. He is kept in captivity in a cell from which all sight of the earth is shut out: he is subjected to harshness by warders who have too often become brutalized by their occupation. He is solemnly denounced as an enemy to society. He is compelled to perform mechanical tasks, chosen for their wearisomeness. He is given no education and no incentive to self-improvement. Is it to be wondered at if, at the end of such a course of treatment, his feelings towards the community are no more friendly than they were at the beginning?"⁶ This is the present day condition of prisons all over the world, excepting a few cases. There is no exaggeration in the above observation as many a political prisoner in India has personally witnessed during recent days.⁷ How far, then, this present civilization can be called advanced when practically the same prison-administration prevails after a period of not less than 2000 years?

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⁶ Roads to Freedom, p. 135.

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⁷ See, among others, K. J. Śridharaṇī, Insān Miṭā dūrgā (Guj.) J. K. Meghaṇī, Jel officenī bāriethī (Guj.)

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