[INDOLOGY] molten lead in ears

[edbryant at rci.rutgers.edu]

> Actually, it is not lead but tin and lac. For this see, Gautama
> Dharmasūtra 12.4 (the whole section is a diatribe against Śūdras).

Do we have any evidence outside of the Dharma Shastra prescriptions - in
Epic or Puranic or early Buddhist/Jain narratives, for example - that such
practices actually occurred?  One might expect that any such occurrences
would provide fuel for anti-brahman polemic, or be referenced in
literature undermining brahman hegemony.

Edwin Bryant.