Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c9.24

c9.24

Of all the legal writers Baudhâyana is in many respects the most interesting to the student of governmental theory. He preserves a record of the old theory of wergild cast in a very oligarchic mould. For slaying a Kṣatriya, one should give the king a thousand cows besides a bull in expiation of his sin; for slaying a Vaiśya, a hundred cows and a bull, for slaying a Śûdra, ten cows and a bull. Then one is astounded to learn that the fine for killing a flamingo, a peacock, a crow, an owl, a frog, a musk-rat, a dog, etc., etc., is the same as for killing a Śûdra.³