Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s9.16

c19.s9.16

The offence of the barber mentioned above brings to our notice a crime that would certainly appear novel to us, witchcraft. Yet the European states had taken serious steps for its suppression. Witchcraft was made criminal in England by a statute of Elizabeth which had not been repealed till 1736. In the meantime no less than 30,000 men and women had lost their lives on the charge of selling their souls to the Devil. The most inhuman of these murders were those of Mrs. Hickes and her daughter a girl of nine in 1716. In Austria the law against witchcraft was suffered to disfigure the statute book as late as 1766. The Peshwas, however, thought fine and imprisonment sufficient penalty for intercourse with evil spirits. Only one case is recorded of capital punishment. But special measures were taken against prisoners convicted of witchcraft and sorcery. In 1775-76, Martand Joshi Rairikar was imprisoned in Killa Ghangad for practising sorcery, the warders in charge were instructed not to allow him to apply sacred ashes or sandal mark on his forehead or to perform the daily religious rites and to recite sacred hymns.³³ He was not to be allowed to take more than one meal per day, and he was required to prepare his own food. Sometimes the Peshwas went further, and took direct measures to deprive the supposed offender of his infernal power. In 1775-76 Moraji, a resident of Poona, was accused of killing a man through the instrumentality of evil spirits. His offence was proved beyond any doubt by the evidence of fifty of his caste people! They further prayed that in order to render his witchcraft ineffectual, two of his upper teeth should be extracted, and he should be made to drink water from a Chambhar's reservoir, and lastly he should be excommunicated. This pious prayer was, for public safety, granted; and further, as the persecuted wizard had threatened to practise witchery against his caste people through Berads and Mangs, if he was excommunicated, the Peshwa ordered him to be imprisoned in the fort of Kohaj and there kept under strict guard.³⁶