Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/43

Rh should say, ‘Declare the truth;’ to the Vaisya he should compare perjury to the crime of stealing kine, grain, or gold; to the Sudra he should compare perjury to every crime in the following language: ‘Whatever places of torture have been prepared for the murderer of a Brahmin, for the murderer of a woman, or child, have also been ordained for that witness who gives false evidence. If you deviate from the truth you shall go naked, shorn, and blind, and be tormented with hunger and thirst, and beg food with a potsherd at the door of your enemy; or shall tumble headlong into hell in utter darkness. Even if you give imperfect testimony, and assert a fact which you have not seen, you shall suffer pain like a man who eats fish and swallows the sharp bones.’ ”—Menu, VIII, 79-95.

The scale of punishments in the case of a Brahmin (in the few instances where he was at all amenable to the law it could only touch his property, never, under any consideration, his person) was equally drawn in his favor, and was all the lighter in proportion to the inferiority of caste of the man whom he had injured; while, on the other hand, it was equally to be increased in severity (for the same crime in both cases) in proportion to the same distinction. Says the law, “A Kshatriya who slandered a Brahmin was to be fined a hundred panas; for the same crime a Vaisya was to be fined a hundred and fifty or two hundred panas; but a Sudra was to be whipped.” On the other hand, if a Brahmin slandered a Kshatriya “he was to be fined fifty panas; if he slandered a Vaisya he was to be fined twenty-five panas; but if he slandered a Sudra he was only to be fined twelve panas. If, however, a Sudra insulted any man of the twice-born castes with gross invectives, he was to have his tongue slit; if he mentioned the name and caste of the individual with contumely, an iron style, ten fingers long, was to be made red-hot and thrust into his mouth; and if, through pride, he dared to instruct a Brahmin respecting his duty, the Rajah was to order that hot oil should be poured into his mouth and ear,”—Menu, VIII, 266-276.

The “pana” was then nearly equal to our cent, so his privilege