Religious Influences in Penology: Tracing the Journey of Penology from Ancient Religious Texts to Modern Legal Provisions in India

Abstract

This article is the culmination of two things; the first as an answer to the curiosity that the authors had regarding religious punishments and their legal as well as moral sanctity. The second is an attempt to understand punishments in different religions, especially Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam and Christianity and contrast it with the findings of modern penology.  The theoretical understanding of penal methods is contrasted with the punishments prescribed in various religious texts and ancient as well as medieval codes of punishments. The article traces the journey of penology from among the ancient practices to the culmination of modern-day punishments. The journey of the evolution of different methods of punishment as a means to bring order to society and the relevance of  the modern jurisprudence of penology is discussed in detail. The article is focused on bringing a clear distinction among the reasons for punishments. The need and necessity  for substituting modern positivistic aspects of punishments instead of the  moral  aspects of punishments as prescribed in the religioun are discussed and elaborated in this article.