292 Lieut. -Colonel Tod on the ReligiouJ Establishments ofMewar. 



authority over the whole of the villages in the grant, to the priests, he com- 

 mitted the temporal welfare of his subjects to a class of men not apt to be 

 lenient in the collection of their dues, which not unfrequently led to blood- 

 shed. In alienating the other royalties, especially the transit duties, he was 

 censured even by the zealots of Cuishna. Yet, however important such 

 concessions, they were of subordinate value to the rights of sanctuary, which 

 were extended to the whole of the towns in the grant, thereby multiplying 

 the places of refuge for crime, alreatiy too numerous. 



In all ages and countries the rights of sanctuary have been admitted, and 

 however they may be abused, their institution sprung from humane motives. 

 To check the impulse of revenge and to shelter the weak from oppression 

 are noble objects, and the surest test of the independence of a state is the 

 extent to which they are carried. From the remotest times sir7!a has been 

 the most valued privilege of the Rajputs, the lowest of whom deems his 

 house a refuge against the most powerful. But we mertly propose here to 

 discuss the sanctuary of holy places, and more immediately that of the 

 shrine of Kaniya. 



When Moses, after the Exodus, made a division of the lands of Canaan 

 amongst the Israelites, and appointed " six cities to be the refuge of him 

 who had slain unwittingly, from the avenger of blood,"* the intent of this 

 appointment was not to afford facilities for eluding justice, but to check the 

 impulse of sudden revenge ; for the slayer was only to be protected " until 

 lie stood before the congregation for judgment, or until the death of the 

 high-priest," which event appears to have been considered as the termina- 

 tion of revenge : " then did the slayer return to the city from whence he 

 fled."t The infraction of political sanctuary (^sirna tunia) often gives rise 

 to the most inveterate feuds ; and its abuse by the priests, both of Eklinga 



• Numbers, chap. xxxv. v. 11, 12. 



f Numbers, cliap. xxxv. v. 25, and Joshua, chap. xx. v. 6. Tliere was an ancient law of 

 Athens analogous to the Mosaic, by which he who committed " chance-medley," should fly tlie 

 country for a year, during which his relatives made satisfaction to the relatives of the deceased. 

 The Greeks had asyla for every description of criminals, which could not be violated without 

 infamy. Gibbon gives a memorable instance of disregard of the sanctuary of St. Julian in 

 Auvergne, by the soldiers of the Frank king Theodoric, who divided the spoils of the altar, and 

 made the priests captives : an impiety not only unsanctioned by the son of Clovis, but punished 

 by the death of the offenders, the restoration of the plunder, and the extension of the right of 

 sanctuary five miles ai'ound the sepulchre of the holy martyr. 



