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people, eats up the food offered to gods, and manes or if a widow behaves in unstrained manner, they should be fined ten rupees, expelled from the jati and allowed to enter it again only after prayascitta. For the use of false weights and measures serious punishment was to be given. For those who claim to be physicians without being so, graded punishment was provided, the highest being given to those who practice quackery in royal houses. Those merchants who combine to raise prices are to be punished seriously. If one mutilates someone else, he was liable to similar mutilation and banishment. One was to be punished by fine for inflicting injury leading to the flow of blood. The man responsible for infliction injury was to pay for the treatment of the injured also. It the driver of a vehicle otherwise. It is curious to read detailed rules about road accidents in Hemacandra. It suggests narrow roads and brisk traffic at least in and near the city.
On the relations of man and woman Hemacandra expresses traditional opinions. The wife should worship the husband to whom she has been given by her parents, etc. even if the husband is of little worth. The h too must take care of the wife with sweet words and solicitude.He repeats Manu's well known dictum, Pita raksati Kaumare' etc., concluding 'stri svadhana bhaven nihi'. But the woman must be protected from all kinds of misbehaviour. Her principal duties are serving the husband, producing children, looking after children and household work: women should not go alone to festivals, threatres or market centres. On the other hand, men should avoid acting against their faith or the state or against social practice even if there may appear to be some profit in it.
Perhaps as an echo of the prayascittadhyaya of the smrtis, Hemacandra has a section on Prayascitta. The actions deserving expiation include entering in the homes of Candalas. Yavanas and Mlecchas. Kiratas, and leather-workers, sexual connection with prohibited persons, living with the Mlecchas in their country, marrying among them. causing the destruction of life etc. The modes of expiation are in terms of fasts, pilgrimages, gifts to holy persons etc.
For Hemacandra. thus the three main functions of the sovereign are to defend the country against agression fron abroad. coerce the unruly not to disturb the public order, and dispense justice. The last of these or vyavahara-niti has been described by him in relatively greater detail. He has described the procedure of judicial administration and also given in summary form a code of laws regulating domestic and business life. He accepts the traditional caste order with its privileged class of Brahmanas and underprivileged Sudras. But his account is free from the exaggerations of the Brahmanical Smrtis. There are no religious disabilities on the
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