[INDOLOGY] molten lead in ears

[John Nemec]

It might be worth adding that similarly horrific punishments also appear in the narrative literature, such as the KathAsaritsAgara, and sometimes with not a chilling but a comic effect.  Still, I wouldn't interpret such episodes as evidence of the absence of literal application of such punishments "on the ground."

John

On Thu, 21 Nov 2013 08:25:32 -0600
 Patrick Olivelle <jpo at uts.cc.utexas.edu> wrote:
>Irrespective of the on-the-ground reality, hyperbole does have real-life functions and effects -- just think of all the sermons on the fire and torture of hell!! What this shows is the effort by the Brahmanical authors to shape social and moral attitudes.
>
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>P
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>On Nov 21, 2013, at 7:51 AM, Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU> wrote:
>
>>> 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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__________________________________
John Nemec, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Indian Religions and South Asian Studies
Department of Religious Studies
University of Virginia
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