XXIII. Adultery

The Minor Law Books (SBE33), by Julius Jolly, [1889], at sacred-texts.com

XXIII. ADULTERY.

1. ¹ The two kinds of injury (abuse and assault) and the three kinds of violence have been declared. Learn the threefold (offence of) adultery, which is productive of sin.

2. The two first kinds of it are connected with violence and deception respectively, the third kind springs from sensual desire; the last is again of three sorts, being of the first, second, or highest degree.

3. When a man has intercourse with a woman in secret against her will, when she is asleep, or disordered in her intellect, or does not notice his approach, it is (termed) forcible enjoyment of a woman.

4. When he conducts her into his house under false pretences, and after giving her intoxicating drugs, has intercourse with her, it is considered fraudulent enjoyment of a woman.

5. When a man exchanges looks with a woman or sends her messages, and has intercourse with her impelled by sensuality, it has to be considered as (adulterous intercourse) springing from sensual desire.

6. ⁶ Winking (at a woman), smiling (at her), sending her messengers, and touching her ornaments or clothes, is termed an adulterous act of the first (or lowest) degree.

7. Sending perfumes, garlands, fruit, spirituous liquor, food, or clothes, and conversing with her in

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secret, is considered an adulterous act of the second degree.

8. Sitting on the same bed, dallying, and kissing or embracing each other, is defined as an adulterous act of the highest degree by persons acquainted with law.

9. ⁹ For these three gradations of adultery, the first, middling, and highest fines shall be inflicted respectively; the fine shall be even higher than that, in the case of a very rich man.

10. ¹⁰ (The king) shall confiscate the whole wealth of him who violates an unwilling woman, and having caused his penis and scrotum to be cut off, shall cause him to be paraded on an ass.

11. ¹¹ When a man enjoys a woman by fraud, his punishment shall be confiscation of his entire wealth, and he shall afterwards be branded with the mark of a female part and banished from the town.

12. The highest fine (shall be inflicted for connexion) with a woman of equal caste; half of that (for connexion) with a woman of inferior caste; but a man who has connexion with a woman of higher caste than his own, shall be put to death.

13. ¹³ When a woman has been enjoyed against her

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will, she shall be kept in the house well guarded, smeared (with ashes), lying on a low couch, and receiving a bare maintenance only.

14. To atone for her sin, she shall be caused to perform the Krikkhra or Parâka penance, in case she had intercourse with her equal in caste; but if she has been enjoyed by a man of inferior caste, she shall be abandoned and put to death.

15. ¹⁵ When a woman comes to a man's house and excites his concupiscence by touching him or the like acts, she shall be punished; half of her punishment shall be inflicted on the man.

16. ¹⁶ Her nose, lips, and ears having been cut off, she shall be paraded in the streets and plunged into water; or she shall be torn to pieces by dogs in a public place frequented by many persons.

Footnotes

365:1 XXIII, 1-5. Vîram. pp. 504, 505; Ratn. pp. 378, 379.

365:6 6-8. Vîram. p. 505; Ratn. pp. 379, 380; Viv. p. 200.

366:9 Ratn. p. 384; Vîram. p. 506; Viv. p. 202; May. p. 149. The Mayûkha as printed reads this text differently, but one MS. of it agrees with the other compilations.

366:10 Ratn. p. 388; Viv. p. 212; May. p. 148.

366:11 11, 12. Ratn. p. 389; Viv. p. 213; May. p. 149. The reading of the Mayûkha seems to be wrong. This rule (12) is declared to apply to those cases where force or deception has not been used. Ratn., Viv.

11. Vîram. p. 506.

366:13 13, 14. Ratn. p. 400. For the Krikkhra (Prâgâpatya) and Parâka penances, see Manu XI, 212, 216.

367:15 Vîram. p. 513; Viv. p. 217.

367:16 Viv. p. 217.