Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s17.163

v1.c3.s17.163

The punishment of thieves appears primarily to have been left to the action of the robbed. The practice of binding them in stocks²⁶ seems clearly referred to. But later, at any rate—and in all probability earlier also, as in other countries—a more severe penalty could be exacted, and death inflicted by the king.²⁷ There is no hint in Vedic literature of the mode of conviction; a fire ordeal is not known to the Atharvaveda,²⁸ and the ordeal known to the Chāndogya Upaniṣad²⁹ is not said to be used in the case of theft. No doubt the stolen property was recovered by the person robbed if he could obtain it. Nothing is known as to what happened if the property had passed from the actual thief into the possession of another person.