Sallekhana is Not Suicide

SR No.: 001568
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T K Tukol
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 124
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Religion
File Size: 8 MB

Page 91

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varied with the caste of the offender, the criterion being that higher the caste the greater the fine as it was presumed that the man of the higher caste must know better the heineousness of the crime. Gaut XII, 1, 8-12; Manu VIII, 267-68 prescribe that a Vaiśya, Kṣatriya or a Śūdra abusing or defaming a Brahmin was to be respectively punished with a fine of 100 panas, 150 panas and with corporal punishment (cutting off tongue) while a Brahmin defaming a Kṣatriya, Vaisya or Śūdra was to be fined 50, 25 or 12 panas respectively... In the case of adultery and rape, the caste of the offender and of the woman made a great difference in the punishment awarded. For adultery with a woman of the same caste Yaj. II, 266 prescribed the highest amercement, the middling one when the paramour was of a higher caste and if the male be of a lower caste than the woman, the male of fender was sentenced to death and the woman had her ears cut off. A Brahmin was not sentenced to death or corporal punishment for any offence whatever, but if he were guilty of an offence deserving the death penalty he was to be punished by ordering his entire head to be shaved; he might be banished from the country. Apastambha Dharmasūtra (II, 10. 27, 16, 17 P) lays down that a Brahmin guilty of murder, theft, forcible seizure of another's land was to have his eyes covered with cloth for the whole of his life while a sudra guilty of any of the three was to receive the death sentence."9
Suicide and the Law
It will be thus evident that criminology has not been an exact science. it has not been uniform even in the same country. It has varied with the races and the national temperament. There is no royal road to the solution of problems connected with the evil affections of human temperament and conduct. Every country has adopted a system which reflects the civilization, genius and character of its people. Even for infliction of death penalty, the mode adopted varied from guillotine to the electrocution chair or the simple rope.
8. Ibid., p. 395.
9. Ibid., p. 396.