Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 77

CASTE SENTENCES
:*7
Their work lias stood the test of thousands
lias survived the lapse of time and the many
revolutions to which this portion of the globe has been
subjected.
The Hindus have often passed beneath the
the world.
of years,
and
yoke of foreign invaders, whose religions, laws, and customs
have been very different from their own yet all efforts to
impose foreign institutions on the people of India have
been futile, and foreign occupation has never dealt more
than a feeble blow against Indian custom. Above all, and
before all, it was the caste system which protected them.
Its authority was extensive enough to include sentences of
death, as I have before remarked.
The story is told, and
the truth of it is incontestable, that a man of the Rajput
caste was a few years ago compelled by the people of his
;
own
caste
and by the
principal inhabitants of his place of
abode to execute, with his own hand, a sentence of death
passed on his daughter. This unhappy girl had been dis-
covered in the arms of a youth, who would have suffered
the same penalty had he not evaded it by sudden flight.
Nevertheless, although the penalty of death may be
inflicted by some castes under certain circumstances, this
form of punishment is seldom resorted to nowadays. When-
ever it is thought to be in dispensable, it is the father or
the brother who is expected to execute it, in secrecy.
Generally speaking, however, recourse is had by prefer-
ence to the imposition of a fine and to various ignominious
corporal punishments.
As regards these latter, we may
note as examples the punishments inflicted on women w ho
have forfeited their honour, such as shaving their heads,
compelling them to ride through the public streets mounted
on asses and with their faces turned towards the tail,
forcing them to stand a long time with a basket of mud
on their heads before the assembled caste people, throwing
into their faces the ordure of cattle, breaking the cotton
thread of those possessing the right to wear it, and ex-
T
communicating the guilty from
1
The
prosecution in
their caste \
such punishments might nowadays be followed by
the Civil and Criminal Courts.
Ed.
infliction of