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Daṇḍa" (Sanskrit: दण्ड, literally 'stick', 'staff', or 'rod', an ancient symbol of authority) [1] is the Hindu term for punishment. In ancient India, the ruler generally sanctioned punishments but other legal officials could also play a part. Punishments were handed out in response to criminal activity.
[139] [140] The text lays out that just punishment is one that is in proportion to the crime in many sections starting with chapter 4 of Book 1, [141] [142] and repeatedly uses this principle in specifying punishments, for example in Topic 79, that is chapter 2 of Book 4. [143]
Other scholars have expressed the same view, based on epigraphical, archaeological and textual evidence from medieval Hindu kingdoms in Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, while acknowledging that Manusmriti was influential to the South Asian history of law and was a theoretical resource.
The texts viewed households and families as the archetype of community, "an exemplary institution of religious and legal reflection of Hindu jurisprudence". [3] Thus, Hindu jurisprudence portrayed the household, not the state, as the primary institution of law. [3] Connectedly, the household is the institution to which Hindu law is most applied.
The classical texts of Hinduism devote numerous chapters to discussing what people who practice the virtue of ahimsa can and must do when faced with war, violent threat, or the need to sentence someone convicted of a crime. These discussions have led to theories of just war, ideas of reasonable self-defense, and views of proportionate punishment.
Hinduism preaches ahimsa (or ahinsa, non-violence), [9] but also teaches that the soul cannot be killed and death is limited only to the physical body, [70] explaining the difficulty in choosing an exact position on capital punishment. [3] Hinduism's belief that life in this world is more of an illusion greatly decreases the religious impact on ...
Hindu law, as a historical term, refers to the code of laws applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in British India. [1] [2] [3] Hindu law, in modern scholarship, also refers to the legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophical reflections on the nature of law discovered in ancient and medieval era Indian texts. [4]
[1] [2] The earliest Dharmashastras, such as Baudhayana (~600 BCE) further take up the discussion of statecraft and state-organization in various subchapters. The Mahabharata , one of the two Epics of Ancient India mentions various schools of statecraft ( daṇḍanīti or rājaśāstra ) and gives a list of political theorists in the ...