caste attended as
jurors or assessors, and carried out the proceedings, perhaps after
having united themselves to the god for the purpose by a sacrificial
meal. The _panchayat_, having succeeded the god as the judge, is
held to give its decisions by divine inspiration, according to the
sayings: 'God is on high and the _panch_ on earth,' and 'The voice
of the _panchayat_ is the voice of God.' [236] The headship of the
_panchayat_ and the subcaste commonly descends in one family, or did
so till recently, and the utmost deference is shown to the person
holding it, even though he may be only a boy for the above reason. The
offences involving temporary or permanent excommunication from caste
are of a somewhat peculiar kind. In the case of both a man and woman,
to take food from a person of a caste from whom it is forbidden to
do so, and especially from one of an impure caste, is a very serious
offence, as is also that of being beaten by a member of an impure
caste, especially with a shoe. It is also a serious offence to be
sent to jail, because a man has to eat the impure jail food. To be
handcuffed is a minor offence, perhaps by analogy with the major one
of being sent to jail, or else on account of the indignity involved
by the touch of the police. As regards sexual offences, there is no
direct punishment for a man as a rule, but if he lives with a low-caste
woman he is temporarily expelled because it is assumed that he has
taken food from her hands. Sometimes a man and woman of the caste
committing adultery together are both punished. A married woman who
commits adultery should in the higher and middle castes, in theory
at least, be permanently expelled, but if her husband does not put
her away she is sometimes readmitted with a severe punishment. A girl
going wrong with an outsider is as a rule expelled unless the matter
can be hushed up, but if she becomes pregnant by a man of the caste,
she can often be readmitted with a penalty and married to him or to
some other man. There are also some religious crimes, such as killing
a cow or a cat or other sacred domestic animal; and in the case of
a woman it is a very serious offence to get the lobe of her ear torn
apart at the large perforation usually made for earrings; [237] while
for either a man or a woman to get vermin in a wound is an offence of
the first magnitude, entailing several months' exclusion and large
expenditure on readmission. Offences against ordinary morality