come to the throne but would be destined to become monks. Similarly,
in speaking of the Georgians, Marco Polo remarks that they cut their
hair short like churchmen. [322] When a member of the religious order
of the Manbhaos is initiated his head is shaved clean by the village
barber, and the scalp-lock and moustache must be cut off by his _guru_
or preceptor, this being perhaps the special mark of his renunciation
of the world. The scalp-locks are preserved and made into ropes
which some of them fasten round their loins. Members of the Hindu
orders generally shave their scalp-locks and the head on initiation,
probably for the same reason as the Manbhaos. But afterwards they
often let the whole of their hair grow long. These men imagine that
by the force of their austerities they will obtain divine power,
so their religious character appears to be of a different order from
monasticism. Perhaps, therefore, they wear their hair long in order to
increase their spiritual potency. They themselves now say that they
do it in imitation of the god Siva and the ancient ascetics who had
long matted locks. The common Hindu practice of shaving the heads
of widows may thus be interpreted as a symbol of their complete
renunciation of the world and of any idea of remarriage. It was
accompanied by numerous other rules designed to make a widow's life a
continual penance. This barbarous custom was formerly fairly general,
at least among the higher castes, but is rapidly being abandoned
except by one or two of the stricter sections of Brahmans. Shaving
the head might also be imposed as a punishment. Thus in the time of
the reign of the Emperor Chandraguptra Maurya in the fourth century
B.C. it is stated that ordinary wounding by mutilation was punished
by the corresponding mutilation of the offender, in addition to the
amputation of his hand. The crime of giving false evidence was visited
with mutilation of the extremities; and in certain unspecified cases,
serious offences were punished by the shaving of the offender's hair,
a penalty regarded as specially infamous. [323] The cutting off of some
or all of the hair is at the present time a common punishment for caste
offences. Among the Korkus a man and woman caught in adultery have
each a lock of hair cut off. If a Chamar man and woman are detected
in the same offence, the heads of both are shaved clean of hair. A
Dhimar girl who goes wrong before marriage has a lock of her hair
cut off as