Page:The history of caste in India.pdf/174

 punishable with death. Fornication is treated less severely than adultery, because adultery is more likely - to cause a confusion of varnas than fornication will. Though adultery is a graver offense than fornication and rape greater than adultery, he recommends the same punishment for a fornication with a Brāhmana girl by a Kshatriya as he docs for rape by a Brāhmana of a married woman (of bad character) of his own varna. For a Brāhmana to commit adultery with an Antyaja (a person of the outcast tribe) woman is in his opinion an offense twice as great as an intercourse with a woman of one of the four varnas.