Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c19.72

v2.c19.72

¹ Or to carry her off against her will (na ca grāhyā balāt striyaḥ). According to Bṛhaspati, xxiii, 10, 15 the man who rapes a woman shall have all his property, his member and scrotum cut off, and then be led round on an ass; if the ravisher is from a lower caste, then the woman must be killed. On the other hand Parāçara, x, 21-22 on the whole teaches that, when a woman has been enjoyed by force or by intimidation, she becomes clean again through certain fixed vows of mortification and by her monthly flow. For the ravisher of a maid Manu, viii, 364 demands death; Nārada, xii, 71, and Yājñav., ii, 288 do so only when it is the case of a maid from the highest or Brahmanic caste; the first-named also ordains the confiscation of all his property. In the case of other girls the cost is according to Yājñav. the hand, according to Nārada two fingers. This last-mentioned punishment is also in Manu, viii, 367. Besides these there are milder prescriptions. So in Manu, viii, 378 the Brahman who forces even a warded (guptā) Brāhmaṇī to his will gets off with a thousand paṇa fine, a very handsome sum, it is true, for a priest's offspring. Cp. also Kauṭilya, 357.18-20; 364.15; and addit., 364.45.—The South Slav severity against the ravisher and deflowerer has also good effects (Krauss, *Sitte u. Brauch*, 204-213).