From: mani@clove.Berkeley.EDU (Mani Varadarajan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian
Subject: The Mahabharata on Capital Punishment
Date: 15 Sep 92 18:07:29
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
Reply-To: mani@sprite.Berkeley.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: clove.berkeley.edu


I had written a while back about the Mokshadharma Portion of
the Mahabharata, a fascinating didactic section of the epic in
which many of the problems of society and religious life are
dealt with.  The spirit that pervades through this subparva,
which is part of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, is one of
pure, intense devotion to Sriman Narayana.  

The rest of this article contains the dialogue between
Dyumutsena and Satyavat which deals with the problem of capital
punishment and its propriety.  My translation is a revised
version of P.C. Ray's old literal work, printed at the turn of
the century.  In his edition, it is XII.267.

----

Yudhisthira asked: 
How should a king protect his subjects without injuring anyone?
I ask you this, O grandsire; please tell me, O foremost of good
men!

Bhishma replied:
In connection with this, we can cite the old narrative of the
conversation between Dyumutsena and Prince Satyavat.  

Upon command of Dyumutsena, a number of individuals were brought
out for execution.  Prince Satyavat said certain words that had
never before been said by anyone.

Satyavat said:
Sometimes righteousness assumes the form of iniquity, and
iniquity assumes the form of righteousness; (but) it can never
be the case that killing of individuals can be a righteous act.

Dyumutsena said:
If the sparing of those that deserve to be slain be
righteousness, if robbers were to be spared, O Satyavat, then
all distinctions (between virtue and vice) would disappear.

`This is mine', `This is not his'---ideas such as these will
not persist (if the wicked aren't punished) in this day of
Kali.  The affairs of the world would then come to a deadlock.
If you can tell me how the world can proceed (without such
punishment), tell me how to do it!

Satyavat said:
[...]
Without destroying the body of the offender, the king should do
that unto him which is directed by the scriptures.  The king
should not act otherwise, neglecting to reflect properly about
the nature of the crime and about the science of morality.

By killing the wicked, the king (in effect) kills a large
number of people that are innocent.  Behold, by killing a
single robber, his wife, mother, father and children are all
killed (because they are deprived of the means of life). When
injured by a wicked person, the king should therefore reflect
deeply on the question of punishment.

Somtimes a wicked man is seen to imbibe good behavior from a
righteous person.  Then again we see that wicked people often
times have good children.

The wicked, therefore, should not be torn up by the roots.  The
extermination of the wicked is not consistent with eternal
practice.  By punishing them gently they may be made to atone
for their crimes.

By depriving them of their wealth, by chains and imprisonment
in dungeons, or by disfigurement (!), (they may be made to
atone for their guilt). Their relatives should not be
persecuted by the infliction of capital sentences on them.

If in the presense of the purohita and others, they give
themselves up to him out of a desire for protection, and swear,
saying, ``O brahmana, we shall never again commit any sinful
act,'' they would then deserve to be let off without any
punishment.  This is the command of the Creator himself.

Even a brahmana, his head shaven, clad with a deerskin and
bearing the danda, should be punished (when he breaks the law).

If great men transgress, their punishment should be
proportionate to their greatness.  As for them that repeatedly
commit crimes, they do not deserve to be dismissed without
punishment, as opposed to their first offense.

Dyumutsensa replied:
As long as those those laws which men should obey are not
violated, so long are those men called righteous.  

If they who violated these laws were not punished with death,
these barriers would soon be destroyed.  Men of remote times
were capable of being governed with ease.

They were very truthful, and they wre seldom disposed to
disputes and quarrels.  They rarely became angry, and if they
did, their anger never became ungovernable.  In those days, the
mere crying of "fie" upon offenders was sufficient punishment.
After this came the punishment represented by harsh speeches or
censures. 

Then came fines and forfeitures.  In this age, however, the
punishment of death has become current.  The measure of
wickedness has increased to such an extent that by slaying one
others cannot be restrained.

The robber has no connection with humans, devas, gandharvas, or
the fathers.  What is he to whom? He isn't anybody to anyone.
So say the Srutis.

[...]

Satyavat said:

[...]

Subjects can be made honest merely by being frightened.  Good
kings never slay the wicked out of revenge.  Good kings succeed
in ruling their subjects properly with the aid of good conduct
(instead of cruel or punitive inflictions).

If the king acts properly, the superior subjects imitate him.
The subordinate people, again, in their turn, imitate their
immediate superiors.  Men are so constituted that they imitate
those whom they regard as their betters.

That king who, without restraining himself, seeks to restrain
others (from evil ways) becomes an object of laughter with all
men in consequence of his being engaged in  the enjoyment of
all worldly pleasures as a slave of his senses.

The king should first restrain his own self if he desires to
restrain others than offend.

[...]


[The translator notes: "The world thus improves in conduct and
morality through the king behaving in a proper way.  Cruel
punishments are scarcely needed to reform the world."]
---------------------------------

I have deleted portions that are hard to construe or are not
really relevant to the essence of the passage.

I will post more passages from the Mokshadharma Parva in the
near future.

Yours in peace,
Mani

Narayanasmaranam.