Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c8.s5.18

c8.s5.18

The punishments for various offences have already been touched upon in the course of the analysis of state-activity. On the whole the Kautalyan Penal Code must be pronounced a stern one. Ordinary wounding is punished by the corresponding mutilation of the offender, in addition to the amputation of his hand. If the injured person happened to be an artisan devoted to the royal service, the penalty was death. The crime of giving false evidence was visited with mutilation of the extremities; and in certain unspecified cases, offences were punished by the shaving of the offender’s hair, a penalty regarded as specially infamous. Injury to a sacred tree, evasion of the tithe on goods sold, and intrusion on the royal procession going to the hunt, all alike might be capitally punished.