Dandvivek

SR No.: 020171
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Vardhaman, Kamal Krishna
Publisher: Oriental Institute
Publication Year: 1931
Total Pages: 426
Language: Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 15 MB

Page 18

INTRODUCTION
xvii
person's inherent right of private defence. Hence killing an assailant ( maafa ) does not constitute an offence.
The following classes of persons are declared as assail. ants :
(1) House-burner. (2) Poison-administerer. (3) Armed person. (4) Stealer of wealth. (5) Dispossessor of corn-field. (6) Kidnapper of wife.
The above six classes of persons are styled waathi (assailants), only when they are actually engaged in the commission of the offences. In cases where they have already committed the offences or threaten to do such in future, there is no warrant for taking the law in one's own hands and putting the person to death. The remedy in such cases lies in reporting the case to the king who will take proper steps in the matter.
If a person causes bodily injury to another, such as dislocation or fracture of bones, oozing out of blood from wounds, then he should provide the aggrieved party with the necessary expenses of diet and medicine to set him right. If a group of persons assaults a single individual, the punishment of every one of the offenders is doubled. If a person strikes another by a cudgel under a sudden provocation, and death results from the stroke, then the offence will be treated not as murder but as a rash act not amounting to murder, and punishment will be awarded accordingly; for murder is committed with the express intention of putting a person to death, while “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” or “grievous hurt” is done with the intention of injuring a person. Like the infliction of bodily pain, infliction of mental pain is also an offence and is punishable. Unlike the Indian Penal Code, where in section 511 attempts to commit offences have been deemed worthy of punishment, the Dandaviveka contains a solitary instance of similar penalisation only in the case of attempts to assault.
He who throws ashes on another's person or beats him with hands is to be fined sixteen māşas. Such punishment will be in