[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v2.c14.4.4 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c14.4.4 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c14.4.4 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c14.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.4) With the Indian doctrine that punishment atones, blots out any guilt and reproach, is probably connected on the other hand the teaching of the old verse which I quoted in that note to the Daçakum., and which, for instance, is also found in Vasistha, xix, 45; Manu, viii, 318; Nārada, Pariçishta, 48: The criminal punished by the king goes without a spot into heaven, like the pious man. Cp. my \*Hindu Tales\*, pp. 9-10 (note). In Sicily, too, as I point out in the Daçakum., executed criminals are prayed to and worshipped. Cp. Hartland, "The Cult of Executed Criminals at Palermo," \*Folk-Lore\*, vol. 21, p. 168 ff.; vol. 7, p. 275; \*Primitive Paternity\*, i, 77. And in general anyone meeting his end by violence is outside the course of nature, and becomes a god, an evil spirit, etc. "There is a deified Pootra in every Rajput family—one who has met with a violent death." Tod, \*Rajasthan\*, i, 298, note; cp. 659-60; Hartland, i, 77; \*Zschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.\*, Bd. 2, p. 185; \*Zschr. f. Religwissensch\*, Bd. 8, p. 258. Much valuable information is given especially by Crooke, \*Pop. Rel.\*, i, 43, 44, 46, 62, 96, 99, 115, 119 129, 138 ff., 147, 189 ff., 230 f., 234 ff.; Crooke, \*The North-Western Provinces\*, 252. Here we find included the suicide, who in the law writing, the Purānas, and elsewhere is branded as evil; - [Previous: v2.c14.4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.3) - [Next: v2.c14.4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.5) - [Up: v2.c14.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.4) · Pramāṇa