The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c14.31

c14.31

against the king, murder of Brāhmaṇas, women and children should be punished capitally. A cut-purse should be punished by two of his fingers being cut off for his first offence. If he repeated the crime, he should lose a hand and a foot, while for the third offence, he should be punished capitally. Robbers who cut the walls and committed thefts should be deprived of their hands and fastened on sharp stakes. Those who sheltered or helped the thieves in any way should be punished as thieves.¹ The destruction of the wall or gate of a town or the filling up of the ditch should be punished with instantaneous banishment. Adultery should, as a general rule, be punished with a terrible physical mutilation and banishment, though its detailed provisions are governed by considerations of caste. Various fines and damages of various amounts are prescribed for destroying a bridge or a flag, a pole or images of a temple or a royal palace, stealing a rope or water-pot from a well, damaging a water-hut, breaking the dam of a tank or defiling the sanitation of the highways.² Defamation is recognised as a crime though, like adultery, it is governed by notions of caste superiority and inferiority. It may be admitted at once that social status had, at least under rulers of Brahmanical persuasion, something to do with the degree of punishment. But it is doubtful if some of the monstrous penalties prescribed by the Dharma Śāstras were ever carried into effect. If a Śūdra mentioned the names and castes of the twice-born with contumely, "an iron rail, ten fingers long, shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth." If he insulted a twice-born man with gross invective, his tongue should be cut out, "for he is of low origin." If he was so arrogant as to teach Brâhmaṇas their duties, “the king shall cause hot oil to be poured into his mouth and into his ears.” Even harsher and sometimes unspeakable are the punishments prescribed by Manu for graver insults which a Śûdra might chance to offer to superior beings. Here the Brâhmaṇas seem to be painting themselves worse than they really were.¹