ABSTRACT
TI-IE equality of laws between the conquerors and the conquered, between priests ~nd .laymen, has not been known in the world's past history. There was not the same law in the past ages for the Greek and the Helot, the Patrician and the Plebeian, the baron and the serf, the monk and the layman, the white man and the negro, or the white man and the red man. And as in other parts of the world, so in India too, we find inequality in laws among the different classes of the people. There was one law for the Brahman, another for the Sudra ; the former was treated with undue leniency, the latter with 'excessive and cruel severity. If a Brahman committed one of the four or five heinous crimes enumerated in the law...books, i.e., if he slew a Brahman, violated his guru's bed, stole the gold or a Brahman, or drank .spirituous liquor, the king branded him on the forehead with a heated iron and banished him from his realm. If a man of a lower caste slew a Brahman, be was punished with death and the confiscation of his property. If such a man slew a man or equal or lower caste, other suitable punishments were meted out to him-(Baudhdyalla, I, 10, 1"8 and 19).
