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Community Law and Criminality
Almost all the castes have the caste panchayat at various levels,
at the village in whole or in a small group of villages, in a region and
in a few cases for the caste group as a whole. This panchayat of sub-castes
elders had the right to supervise the social interactions
especially in taking of food and drink from member of other castes
and avoiding sexual contact with members of the so called
lower castes. Besides this, the panchayat used to sit in judgment
on cases of choice of transgression of marriage regulations,
divorce, and adultery cases or in cases of partition in a family
and in cases of choice of occupation and client etc. Further,
the panchayat was competent to ostracise members of the sub castes
when they contravened its regulations and injunctions and it could
also prescribe ritual expiations in case of some specific sins
committed ( incest, killing a cow, killing of a Brahman, one's wounds
getting gangrenous and infested with maggots-all of which were considered
great transgressions). Though the Hindu Raja was the highest court of
appeal in social and caste, matters, and he had to rely up on his
family Brahman Purohit or the other learned Brahman Pandits, the caste
panchayats were left much to themselves and led a semi-autonomous
and self-regulatory existence.
Each tribal community had at least a village council looking after the
village affairs, rituals social, economic and political. Among the Oraons,
the Mundas, the Santhals and the Hos etc., there was an inter-village
tribal organisation with a series of officials holding hereditary positions
as periodically selected. Among the tribes of Odisha (Orissa) murders are
rarely committed for the gain of property. But murder for revenge is rather
frequent, as also murder for jealousy in sex.
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