Beating Of Brahmins

Author(s): Colette Caillat
Publisher: Colette Caillat

Page 1

The Beating of the Brahmins
(Uttaradhyayana 12)
COLETTE CAILLAT
In his book Juridical studies in ancient Indian law, Ludwik Sternbach has shown how Indian narrative literature can often be read in the light of the law-books. More recently, analysing the motif of the 'shattered head split" in the Brahmanic and Buddhist traditions, Prof. S. Insler has suggested that one category of these tales also probably relates to some ancient custom to which Manu and others refer in passing.' In the present paper an attempt is made to see whether there exist any connections between criminal law and some of the situations depicted in a Jain pamphlet, viz. the 12th chapter of the canonical Uttaradhyayana-sútra.
But first, after a summary of the Utt narrative, it will be argued that the motif of the divine punishment befalling boasting, slandering, violent brahmin youths which features in this lesson appears as a sort of negative counterpart to the solemn proclamation of Truth which in the same development is made by an unexpected witness.
Abbreviations. - Languages: AMg. - Ardhamagadhl; Pa = Pali; Sk. = Sanskrit. Texts: AS = Arthaldstra (Ed.-Trsl.-Study: R.P. Kangle. The Kaurillya Arthalstra I. II. III. Bombay 1960, 1963, 1965, Univ. of Bombay Series, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pali, 1, 2, 3): Mn = Manava Dharma-Sastra (ed. Jolly, London 1887, trsl. Bähler, Sacred Books of the East 25, Oxford 1886); U = Umaradhyayanasura = Untaraljhaya (ed. Jarl Charpentier, Uppsala 1921-1922 - Ee); trsl. Jacobi, SBE 45, 1895 (generally followed below); Punyavijaya-Bhojak, Bombay 1977, Jaina-Agama. Series (= JAS) 15). -Pa. texts are quoted as in A Critical Pall Dictionary: D - DighaNikdya: Ja = Jotaka; Vin = Vinayapitaka.
Ludwik Sternbach, Juridical studies in ancient Indian law, Delhi ... (1965-1967). Part II, Indian tales and the Dharma- and Artha-sources, cf. p. 1-3. Also see the review by J.M. Derrett, JAOS 1969.1. p. 185-7: 'The legal aspects of daily life are conventionally undervalued and underexamined ... far more of dharma and nirl was generally known to, and appreciated by the general literate public of India than would be expected by the antilegal... academic of our age (p. 185).
Stanley Insler, "The shattered bead split and the epic tale of Sakuntala', Bulletin d'Erudes Indiennes 7-8 (1989-1990), p. 97-139, especially p. 102-109 (for the reference to M. Witzel's article, "The case of the shattered head", ibid. p. 97).
• Cr, Pasaccakiriyd, Sk. *saryo-kriya. For a general survey of this belief, see W. Norman Brown, "Duty as Truth in ancient India, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Sociery, 116 (1972), 252-68. Reprinted in India and Indology. Selected articles by W. Norman Brown. Edited by
Festschrift Klaus Bruhn, StIT (1994) pp. 255-266