Life in Ancient India as Depicted in Jain Canons

SR No.: 011077
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jagdishchandra Jain
Publisher: New Book Company
Publication Year: 1947
Total Pages: 429
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 71

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
69
the priest would not return it. At last the merchant sued in the court and the priest lost the case. The king ordered the pricst cither to be given ond huulrud lashes or to swallow human cxcrcta (gū). The culprit prcfcrred the former But after rccciving a few lashcs he was tired and he prcfcired to talkc excrcta. After taking it a littlc he refused to take any more and he asked for the lashes again Thus the culprit had to undergo both punishments and his whole property was confiscatcd 82
Even women were punished for their offences although the severity of punishment to women-folk was not the same as thosc to mcn Pregnant women, for example, were exempted from torturous punishments We read of a certain girl who was banished by her parents. She got a job in the house of a wine-merchant The girl was pregnant and in order to fulfil her pregnancy-longing shc uscd to steal money from her master's shop One day she was caught and the merchant reported to the king, who handed over the girl to be cxecuted after delivery. After delivery however, the girl escaped and her son was brought up by thc king. 33
ADULTERY
Like robbery, adultcry also was punished severely with death, imprisonment, mulitation and banishment. We are told that a person who committed adultery was çensured and beaten, his head was shaved and his penis mutilated. Ujjhiya was a merchant's son of Vāniyagāma who used to visit a courtesan named Kāmajjhayā. It so happened that thic king also loved the same courtcsan. One day, finding Ujjluya in her house, the king turned him out and kept the courtcsan as his mistics After sumc time Ujjhiya succccdcd in visiting Kāmaijhayā sccrctly Hc was caught and was belaboured by the loyal officers His hands were lightly bound behind his back, luis nose and cars wcie mutilated, luis body was besmcaied with oil, hc wore a pani of rough rags, round his neck was thrown a gailand of icd flowers, red dust was sprinkled over hus body, hic was made to cat the small picces of his flesh, his offencc being proclaimed at ci cry quuc with the beat of a broken drum and thus he was led away to the place of cxecution.p5 A similar story is told about Sagada, who secretly visited thc courtesan Sudainsana, a kccp of thc king's minister. Sagailu was charged with adultery and was brought beforc the king, who ordered him to be executed along with the courtesan Sagada was made to cmbracc a rcdhot iron image of a woman till lic died 36 Thon Baliassudatta, a minister of king Udayana, was impulcd for a similar offence along
39 Ala cū, 2, P 63 33 Gacchi Vr, 36 34 Nisi cū, 15, P 1002, Manu, VIII, 374 33 V
18 t l'or a similar description sec kanavira Talaha. III, No 318. Sulasd Jataka, III, (No 419), also cf. Tajriavalkyasmrti (III, 5, 2321), Manu, VIII, 372 f.
86 V123., 4, p. 31.