Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.s5.17

c11.s5.17

It is instructive to compare Śukra with Alberūnī's realistic account of India on the eve of the Muslim conquest. He notes that a Brāhmaṇa who murdered a person of another caste was bound, according to law, only to perform an expiation consisting of fasting, prayers and almsgiving. But if a Brāhmaṇa murdered a fellow-Brāhmaṇa, the law did not allow him to perform an expiation so that he might be punished to the full in future. Such may have been the law in theory but continues Alberūnī, what rulers actually did was to expel and confiscate the property of any Brāhmaṇa or Kṣatriya who committed any of the four greatest "mortal" crimes :—
(1) The Murder of a Brāhmaṇa.
(2) The Killing of a Cow.
(3) The Drinking of Wine.
(4) Whoredom especially with the wife of one's father or teacher.