Verbal assault
“vākpāruṣya”
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
verbal assault · vākpāruṣya · defamation · insult
in the texts
Kātyāyana Smṛti
A named legal category of speech offense, classified as harsh, abusive, or grave, with associated fines and procedures.
A snort of contempt, a cough, and whatever is censured in the world, to imitate or repeat it, is called verbal assault (*vākpāruṣya*).
One should convict a man guilty of verbal abuse with great care and investigation.
He who, for a malicious reason, proclaims faults in one who is faultless, and who speaks in insinuation, one should know that man as guilty of verbal abuse.
Manusmṛti
The legal category covering insults, defamation, and abusive speech, with punishments scaled by the caste of offender and victim.
This rule of punishment for verbal assault has been declared in truth;
If he mentions their name and caste with malice, an iron nail, ten fingers long and glowing hot, shall be thrust into his mouth.
For a Vaiśya and a Śūdra, it is just the same, in truth, against their own caste;
Nāradasmṛti
The legal category covering abusive or insulting speech, graded by severity
Abusive language connected with insults to one's country, caste, family, and the like, which has a hostile meaning, is called verbal assault (`vākpāruṣya` (वाक्पारुष्य)).
Verbal Assault
harsh, obscene, and severe.