The India They Saw

Title: The India They Saw

Author: Sandhya Jain and Meenakshy Jain

The India They Saw is a series of 4 volumes of books by Meenakshy Jain and Sandhya Jain. Volume I talks of the ancient India as seen through the eyes of travellers and foreign visitors to the land, describing everything from the landscape to the kingdoms to the richness in education and culture, including the social practices of the time- all set within the time period between 5th Century BC to the 7th Century AD. Volume II covers the events between 8th-15th centuries, still covering the ancient Indian descriptions and accounts of the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and the Chinese. Volume III starts with the coming of Vasco da Gama, and covers the European accounts of India in the 16th and 17th centuries. The final and fourth volume covers the accounts of English travellers and missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

I just started this book today, and it is very interesting. The compilations made are very beautiful, truly bringing to you in a chronological order the India they saw. While reading, one can spot the similar accounts, owing to different travellers and writers observing the same kind of practices in the same time period across many parts of the country! The travellers are also unanimous in one more thing- their sheer awe on the high cultural and spiritual progress that they saw in India, unlike any other place. 

The India They Saw presents the historical Indian view from a beautiful angle, and it is so well arranged through the four volumes, covering in total from the 5th century BC to the 18th century. Some of these travellers and their accounts take you back to what you read in your Social Sciences during middle school- a fun way to learn history.

I feel this is another book which can be read in small doses and interesting snippets, from which you can learn a lot over a period of time! Do check it out!

Forensics In Arthashastra

My previous post on Forensic Science and Medico-Legal Jurisprudence, and how it reflects the practices of ancient times, was read and appended with a request to also give an example! So, here's a an example from the research I did in my college when I had the subject of Forensic Science.

Kautilya wrote the Arthashastra originally in Sanskrit. Later, it was translated to English by R. Shamasastry. Rudrapatna Shamasastry was a Sanskrit scholar and librarian at the Oriental Research Institute Mysore. He discovered and published the Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy. Thus, now we shall look at the provisions that Kautilya had provided, in the English translation for better understanding. 

The seventh chapter in the fourth book of the treatise of Arthashastra deals with the concept of Criminal Investigation. Arthashastra specifies in great detail the modus operandi of criminals and criminal intentions or motives. It states very clearly and simply the various inferences that has to be drawn from the minutest clues left behind by perpetrators. Even, discretionary details that may vary highly from case to case has been rigidly dealt with by Kautilya in his treatise. For example, whether a death due to hanging was homicidal or suicidal, and whether the injuries were self inflicted or otherwise, were mentioned by Kautilya in the Arthashastra. He did not leave anything to the discretion of the examining officer to seal justice for the victim. 

The first ten verses from this chapter of Arthashastra which deals with post mortem examination has been discussed below. Every point contains the original verse from the Arthashastra, the literal translation as provided by R. Shamasastry (in quotes and italics), and a small text from other supplementary readings from various sources that can help us understand the verse better.

1. “In cases of sudden death, the corpse shall be smeared over with oil and examined.”

It has been put down by Kautilya that it is required by the magistrate to conduct a post-mortem on any case of sudden or unnatural death after smearing the body with oil for the purpose of bringing out bruises, swellings and other injuries if any. 

2. “Any person whose corpse is tainted with mucus and urine, with organs inflated with wind, with hands and legs swollen, with eyes open, and with neck marked with ligatures may be regarded as having been killed by suffocation and suppression of breathing.”

The essential symptoms of death due to asphyxiation or suppression of breathing as put down by Kautilya are swollen hands, feet or abdomen, sunken eyes and inflated navel. These pointers help in identification of a special case of unnatural death due to restraint in breathing.

3. “Any person with contracted arms and thighs may be regarded as having been killed by hanging. Any dead person with swollen hands, legs and belly, with sunken eyes and inflated navel may be regarded as having been killed by hanging.”

The symptoms of death by hanging has been identified as urine and faeces being thrown out, the skin of the abdomen being inflated with wind, swollen hands and feet, eyes being open or sunken, marks visible on the throat, apart from contacted arms and thighs.

4. “Any dead person with stiffened rectum and eyes, with tongue bitten between the teeth, and with belly swollen, may be considered as having been killed by drowning.”

The symptoms are generally protruding eyes or anus, bitten tongue and swollen abdomen for death by drowning due to the osmotic pressure of water and turgidity of bodily cells due to osmosis.

5. “Any dead person, wetted with blood and with limb, wounded and broken, may be regarded as having been killed with sticks or ropes.”

Symptoms for death succumbed when beaten with sticks or ropes are fractured body parts, muscles in spasm, and body being covered in blood. 

6. “Any dead person with fractures and broken limbs, may be regarded as having been thrown down.”

The signs of death due to being hurled down from a height can be summed up as shattering of the bones of limbs and bursting of passage canals such as pharynx and oesophagus. 

7. “Any dead person with dark coloured hands, legs, teeth, and nails, with loose skin, hairs fallen, flesh reduced, and with face bedaubed with foam and saliva, may be regarded as having been poisoned.”

During the time of this treatise and the time that followed, apart from the above mentioned signs, the other signs that were considered as an essential pointer towards death by poisoning was drooling, excessive tearing, low blood pressure or hypotension, and loss of muscle control and muscle twitching. Even factors such as loss of eyesight or retinal malfunction was considered important evidences in post mortem forensics. 

8. “Any dead person of similar description with marks of a bleeding bite, may be considered as having been bitten by serpents and other poisonous creatures.”

The above mentioned symptoms along with signs that were considered for poisoning was duly looked for in cases of death by insect or snake bites also. 

9. “Any dead person, with body spread and dress thrown out after excessive vomiting and purging may be considered as having been killed by the administration of the juice of the madana plant.”

After the dealings of post mortem, Arthashastra also enlightens on the tests to be carried out to confirm or cross check the results obtained from the post mortem of the victim.

A portion of the translated version of Arthashastra by R. Shamasastry reads:

“Death due to any one of the above causes is, sometimes under the fear of punishment, made to appear as having been brought about by voluntary hanging, by causing marks of ligature round the neck.

In death due to poison, the undigested portion of meat may be examined in milk. Or the same extracted from the belly and thrown on fire may, if it makes ‘chitchita’ sound and assumes the rainbow colour, be declared as poisoned.

Or when the belly (hridayam) remains unburnt, although the rest of the body is reduced to ashes, the dead man's servants may be examined as to any violent and cruel treatments they may have received at the hands of the dead. Similarly such of the dead man's relatives as a person of miserable life, a woman with affections placed elsewhere or a relative defending some woman that has been deprived of her inheritance by the dead man may also be examined.

The same kind of examination shall be conducted concerning the hanging of the body of an already dead man.”

Therefore, there existed such methodical techniques through which the outcome of the post mortem test results could be verified with scientific and practical proof. There are many more such texts that talk about surgery, medicines, and other things- so, the scientific knowledge of the ancient times is still reflected in present day practices, though it may not be in the same form. 

Hope you enjoyed reading it!

Forensic Science and Medico-Legal Jurisprudence: A Reflection Since Ancient Times

The use of forensic techniques has been existent throughout history to solve crimes, initiating from the early existence of man. Forensic Science was intact in its simplest forms and kept on expanding throughout the prehistoric era. Prehistoric forensics is also considered as the building blocks of modern forensic techniques. 

Alfred Swaine Taylor’s Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence (1865) expounds the concept of Medical jurisprudence, and also forensic medicine, legal medicine or state medicine, as the science which teaches application of every branch of medical knowledge to the purpose of the law.

The term ‘forensics’ is derived from the Latin word forensis. Forensis essentially means ‘of the forum’, which in ancient sense referred to where civic and legal matters were up for discussion. Though the terms ‘medical jurisprudence’ and ‘forensic medicine’ have been used interchangeably by many at many different places, there is a thin line of differentiation that segregates one subject from the other. 

Medical Jurisprudence essentially refers to all those questions that affect the social right of individuals and brings the one who administers medical advice, the medical practitioner, in contact with law when there is a violation of right that the victim suffers. In simple terms, medical jurisprudence is the legal aspect of medical practice. Whereas, forensic medicine is the application of legal aspect of medical practice to given situations or circumstances. This thin line of difference is usually muddled up, when actually these terms are supposed to be used technically and in a highly discreet manner. 

Another important branch that comes under the wing of forensics and medical jurisprudence is toxicology. Toxicology is the study of symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of poisons, and methods of detecting them. 

Combining the understanding of these basic terms, the application of such technical knowledge can be seen through the ancient Indian medico-legal treatises and works that break down the essentials of these advanced sciences to the minute level.

Ancient India was one of the golden ages of scholarly developments. Various treatises, literature, textbooks and other scholarly forms of original work were written and published during this time period. These intellectual pieces of writing covered a spectrum of issues and topics that was required to aid and guide the people or the government. Also, this was the period where the concept of state formation, and thus a unified regulation, came up and hence, elaborate details on sensitive but highly relevant issues such as crime and justice, were penned down. 

On a similar tone, issues on forensic medicine or examination of sudden death was also elaborately dealt with in the ancient texts. After reviewing the articles and various primary and secondary sources provided by scholars of different time periods since then, we come to acknowledge the fact that ancient India in its time was much ahead in forensic sciences as compared to other countries of that era.

The legal reception of forensic identification science varies from one legal system to another, and one culture to another. The processes and systems that exist today in India in the fields of medical jurisprudence, forensic medicine and toxicology, are derived strongly from the various scholarly texts of its rich and abundant historical literature and culture. It reflects the highly civilized and extremely educated characteristics of the ancient society of India. It reflects that India has always been a progressive nation giving great importance to scientific procedures, logical and legal soundness. Thus, by studying and analysing such primary sources of invaluable knowledge from indian predecessors, the science of forensics must grow and improve to fulfill the prima facie aim of imparting justice, overcoming hurdles such as corruption, to the sufferer.

NOTE: Image is that of Charaka Samhita.