[INDOLOGY] molten lead in ears

[Matthew Kapstein]

>Were these ghastly strictures ever carried out, to our knowledge? 

This is of course very difficult to answer. However, we do know that real atrocities are committed against lower caste persons
regularly in India - anyone who follows Indian newspapers will be aware of this. And, in particuler, lower caste persons who are
perceived as somehow "uppity" are routinely the victims.

A particularly harrowing, though fictional, reflection may be found in Rohinton Mistry's novel A Fine Balance.

Manu & co., at the very least, provided an ideological fig leaf to cover genuinely monstrous behavior.  

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études,
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago

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