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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
INTRODUCTION
Criminality, again, is of two kinds, viz., repeated and solitary.
Caste If in the commission of a particular crime, a Sūdra gets a certain amount of punishment, then the punishments which should be awarded in such case to a Vaiśya, to a Kşatriya, and to a Brāhmaṇa should be twice, four times, and eight times respectively, that amount.
Subject In the case of thefts of all objects of small value, the punishment shall be five times the value of the object stolen.
Amount In the case of paddy-stealing, the punishment should exceed ten Kumbhas.?
Application Punishment varies in accordance with five causes, viz., absolute immunity from, mitigation, equability, and aggra. vation of punishment, and special treatment. The following classes of persons enjoy absolute immunity from punishment, viz., preceptor, officiating priest, brahmacārin, king, child, old person, and a person suffering from fell diseases. Persons who commit a crime on a sudden provocation or under the influence of intoxicants, or who are confirmed lunatics also enjoy absolute immunity. Brahmins as a caste enjoy the following privileges, viz., they must be allowed passage while going, they can enter other persons' dwelling houses for asking alms, they can take fuel, flower, and Kuća grass from others' premises, and they can speak to others' wives. Moreover, of the three kinds of corporeal punishments, the Brahmins are honourably exempted from the last two, viz., mutilation and death. The only corporeal punishment which can be meted out to them is infliction of pain in the shape of imprisonment or imprinting their person. In severe cases like killing of an embryo, defiling the preceptor's wife (lit. bed), stealing gold, and drinking alcohol, the neck, the rectum, the foot of a dog, and the penis should be respectively imprinted on
1 A measure of grain, equal to sixty-four seers.
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