The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c10.92

c10.92

It is patent that in the Jâtaka administrative system as a whole, the executive and fiscal functions were combined with the judicial. But besides the king, the Purohita and the Senâpati there were also other judicial officers. Sometimes the bench consisted of several judges. We see a court of five counsellors (V, 228.) Incidentally, they are all corrupt (V, 229). In III, 505, a regular hall of justice is mentioned. Ecclesiastical cases seem to have come before state-courts. Thus, the case of a pregnant nun in which the commands of the Buddha and his rival Devadatta were concerned, comes before a king and his ministers (I, 146 et seq.). The investigation of crimes was, at least sometimes, thorough. When a king gives out that he has lost a jewelled crest, the city-gates are shut, all carts are searched and similar other measures taken (II, 122-23; V, 461). The punishments for serious offences were very severe. A robber, guilty of high treason, has his hands and feet, nose and ears cut off, is laid in a canoe and is left to drift down the Ganges (II, 117). Another daring robber is sentenced by the king to be put to death. “They bound his hands behind his back, and led him to the place of execution, scourging him in every square with whips” (III, 436; see also V, 461). An ascetic suspected of robbery at night is, after being reviled and beaten by the owners of the house, carried into the presence of the king. The latter makes no inquiry but merely says, “Off with him, impale him upon a stake.” They took him to the cemetery and lifted him up on a stake of acacia wood. There he hung a whole day with gouts of blood falling upon his body (IV, 29). An ascetic, at first appointed judge, is falsely accused of treason and is sentenced to be slain. However, he is ultimately allowed to depart. Later, the queen is accused of correspondence with him and is put to death. When the four princes become enemies of the king on this account and the innocence of the ascetic is established, the king sentences his five accusers—the former judges—to be put to death. The sentence, however, is not executed in deference to the wishes of the Bodhisatta. So, the five men are stripped of their property, disgraced in various ways by their hair being fastened into five locks, by being put into fetters and chains, by cowdung being sprinkled over them and are finally driven out of the kingdom (V, 229 et seq ). In another story, two sellers of bad drink are sentenced to be beheaded (V, 13). Accidental homicide however, seems to have been lightly dealt with. A park-keeper who happens to kill a pacceka-buddha flies in dread but is pardoned and restored to his office (III, 441). For certain offences imprisonment was the ordinary punishment. Prison life was hard indeed. On release a man looked forlorn and helpless (VI, 8). Imprisonment, in fact, seems to have been regarded as equal to some horrible punishments in its severity. Thus, of four robbers brought before a king, one is sentenced “to receive a thousand strokes from whips barbed with thorns, another to be imprisoned in chains, a third to be smitten with a spear and the fourth to be impaled” (VI, 4). For some heinous crimes the punishment was to be trampled down by elephants. The culprits were made to lie down in a courtyard and the trained beasts broke their bones (I, 200).