Patrick,

Most capital offenses are dealt with in the final chapters of the fourth book of the Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra, called kaṇṭakaśodhana. I don’t recall this method being prescribed there, but I would suppose that it could constitute what the text calls citravadha, “vivid execution” or execution with torture.

Best,
Mark

On Oct 7, 2016, at 2:53 AM, Ashok Aklujkar <ashok.aklujkar@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

Ituṣānala, tuṣāgni, etc. (with other synonyms of agni appearing as the second member of the compound) occur in the story about Dharma-kīrti/a Buddhist teacher and Kumārila. It does refer to a capital punishment but to a self-inflicted capital punishment — a prāyaścitta in which the repentant person chooses to die in a slow-burning fire to atone for what he considers to be a grave sin. A reference exists in one of the Śaṅkara/Śāṅkara-vijayas/digvijayas. (I cannot give you a precise reference at present because I am away from my personal library.) The context is one in which the great Advaitin teacher Śaṅkara wishes to debate with the great Mīmāṁsaka Kumārila. However, when Śaṅkara approaches Kumārila, he finds him self-immolating in tuṣa fire. guru-droha or a Vaidika’s studying with a Buddhist is usually given as the reason behind Kumārila’s choosing to die in a very painful way. 

a.a.


On Oct 6, 2016, at 4:00 PM, patrick mccartney <psdmccartney@gmail.com> wrote:

I came across this word below while looking up the meaning of another word in the dictionary. I am curious to know in which text(s) it might be found. Is there a section on capital punishment in the arthaśāstras? 



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