Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.73

v1.c8.73

1 The law books and the Purāṇas no less angrily brand intercourse with a woman below a man’s own caste, and particularly with one above it. The Brahman who lies with a slave-woman goes to hell (Garuḍapurāṇasārod., iv, 37); if he goes to a Pariah woman he becomes a Pariah himself (Baudh., ii, 2, 4.14 = ii, 2.67; Manu, xi, 176); he is the same as the defiler of the teacher’s marriage-bed (Yājñav., iii, 231). The man of the three upper castes who lies with a Çūdrā woman must be banished (Āpast., ii, 10, 27.8). The man without honour who demeans himself to an antyā (woman on the lowest rung of the social ladder) must be put to death (Viṣṇu, v, 43), or branded and banished; a Çūdra man so doing becomes himself an antya (the antya who goes to an āryā or woman of the three upper castes is, of course, put to death). Yājñav., ii, 294. According to Parāçara, vii, 8 the Brahman who lies one night with a Çūdrā woman must live for three years on alms, and recite mantras daily; while x, 5 ff. lays down for intercourse with a Pariah woman fixed penalties, which also consist of gifts of oxen. It is significant that it is the Çūdra man who suffers most here, and so upwards to the Brahman, who only has to fast for three nights. Manu punishes intercourse with a woman of lower caste by heavy fines (viii, 373; 382-5). Āpastamba, ii, 10, 27.8 punishes with banishment the man of the three upper castes who finds delight with a Çūdrā woman. Naturally the dragging down of a woman is a still worse thing. A Kshattriya, Vaiçya, or Çūdra who lies with a Brahman woman is burnt. This same fate befalls the Çūdra man who sins with a Kshattriyā or a Vaiçyā woman, and the Vaiçya man who sins with a Kshattriyā woman. Vasisṭha, xxi, 1-5. There is at least this much, however, that good grass, but less so as we go down the castes, is used for this fiery cleansing. It is in a fire of straw according to Baudh., ii, 2.52 f. that the Çūdra man suffers death; others must keep chaste for a year (but cp. the commentator). The man’s death alone can atone for his intercourse with a woman of a higher caste (Nārada, xii, 70; Yājñav., ii, 286). If a Çūdra has intercourse with an Āryā woman, then his penis is cut off and his property confiscated; if the woman was a ward he is put to death. Gaut., xii, 2 f.; Manu, viii, 374. Āpast., ii, 10, 27.9-10 simply enjoins execution for this case. Heavy punishment also befalls according to Manu, viii, 375, the Kshattriya or the Vaiçya man who defiles a Brahman woman, in certain circumstances even death by fire like the Çūdra man. And so on with other cases. The woman who thus lowers herself comes out of it, according to many