Mindful of the wise saying, "if the Rajadid not punish the guilty,
the stronger would roast the weaker like a fish on the spit," he
began the work of reform with an iron hand. He confiscated the
property of a councillor who had the reputation of taking bribes; he
branded the forehead of a sudra or servile man whose breath smelt
of ardent spirits, and a goldsmith having been detected in fraud he
ordered him to be cut in shreds with razors as the law in its mercy
directs. In the case of a notorious evil-speaker he opened the back
of his head and had his tongue drawn through the wound. A few
murderers he burned alive on iron beds, praying the while that
Vishnu might have mercy upon their souls. His spies were ordered,
as the shastra called "The Prince" advises, to mix with robbers and
thieves with a view of leading them into situations where they
might most easily be entrapped, and once or twice when the
fellows were too wary, he seized them and their relations and
impaled them all, thereby conclusively proving, without any
mistake, that he was king of earth.

With the sex feminine he was equally severe. A woman convicted
of having poisoned an elderly husband in order to marry a younger
man was thrown to the dogs, which speedily devoured her. He
punished simple infidelity by cutting off the offender's nose--an
admirable practice, which is not only a severe penalty to the
culprit, but also a standing warning to others, and an efficient
preventative to any recurrence of the fault. Faithlessness combined
with bad example or brazen-facedness was further treated by being
led in solemn procession through the bazar mounted on a
diminutive and crop-eared donkey, with the face turned towards
the crupper. After a few such examples the women of Ujjayani
became almost modest; it is the fault of man when they are not