An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of GorkhaHamilton, Francis
History
An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha
Hamilton, Francis
Nepal -- Description and travel; Nepal -- History
The criminal in the east might appeal from even the Raja’s decision, to
the court called Bharadar, consisting of all the chief officers of
government; but in the west, no such court, I believe, existed. Oaths
were seldom administered. If the parties, however, insisted on this
form, the Haribangsa, a part of the Mahabharat, was put into the
witness’s hand. Ordeals were seldom used, until the Gorkha family seized
the government, since which they have become very frequent.
There were five severe punishments: 1_st_, confiscation of the whole
estate; 2_dly_, banishment of the whole family; 3_dly_, degradation of
the whole family by delivering the members to the lowest tribes; 4_thly_,
maiming the limbs; 5_thly_, death by cutting the throat.
The people of Gorkha have introduced other capital punishments, hanging
and flaying alive. Women, as in all Hindu governments, are never put to
death; but the punishments inflicted on them are abundantly severe. The
most common is the cutting off their noses. Even those of considerable
rank are tortured, by being smoked in a small chamber with the
suffocating fumes of burning capsicum, and by having their private parts
stuffed with this acrid substance.
There were two kinds of fines; Prayaschitta for the neglect of
ceremonies, and those inflicted as punishments for crimes. The latter
went to the Raja, and do so still. The former went to the Dharm’adhikar,
or chancellor; but having been enormously multiplied since the Gorkha
government, their amount is divided into eight shares, of which the Raja
takes one, the collector (Gomashtash) one, the Dharm’adhikar one, and one
goes to each of five families of Brahmans, named Pangre, Pantha, Arjal,
Khanal, and Agnidanda. These families divide their shares equally among
their members, who have multiplied exceedingly. Besides the fine, all
delinquents in matters of ceremony are compelled to entertain a certain
number of these five families; the two first fattening on the wicked of
the country west from the Narayani; and the other three on those east
from that river. The number to be fed is restricted by the sentence, and
the criminal may select those to whom he gives the entertainment, in any
manner he pleases, confining himself strictly to the families entitled to
participate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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