In ancient भारत sacred injunctions existed about religious rites to be performed for the atonement of sins committed. The following are a few of them.

Murder is that act which ends in loss of life. One who kills a ब्रह्मिन् is a ब्रह्मघातक . Even if murder is actually committed by one man, all those involved in a conspiracy for murder are murderers. If death occurs while treating a patient it is no murder. If death occurs when you punish your son, disciple or wife it is no sin. If he who has killed a ब्रह्मिन् or a cow commits suicide he will be absolved from his sin. Or he should go about begging with a skull and the organ of generation of any animal. If he spends twelve years begging eating little and with repentance in his heart the ब्रह्मघातक will be absolved of his sin and he will become pure. If the murder is done to serve a purpose of his he should live as a beggar for twelve years but if it is not done to gain any end of his, he need live only for six years as a beggar. If a ब्रह्मिन् attempts to murder another ब्रह्मिन् he should observe the above vow for three years. If the attempt is made by a क्षत्रिय he should double the period; if by a वैश्य or शूद्र , triple the period If a ब्रह्मिन् kills a क्षत्रिय he need observe only three fourths of the प्रायश्चित्त . If a ब्रह्मिन् kills a वैश्य or शूद्र he need observe only an eighth part of the प्रायश्चित्त . If he kills a woman he should observe the punishment fixed for killing a शूद्र .

If a ब्रह्मिन् does ' गोहत्या ' (killing a cow) he should practise penance drinking पञ्चगव्य (five products of the cow taken collectively). He should sleep in a cowshed and go about feeding the cow and should also give away cows as gift. If a गोहत्या is committed by a person of any other caste, he need observe only three fourths of the प्रायश्चित्त . Hitting the cows by fists, piercing their body with nails and cutting their horns are to be classified under गोहत्या . If one kills a cat mongoose, frog dog, or a bird, one should drink milk for three days.

Though wine, date-palm-juice sugar-cane-juice, black-palm-juice, tamarind-juice and toddy are intoxicants they are not classified under alcoholic liquors. Real liquor or सुरा is that made from rice flour. Drinking liquor is prohibited to ब्रह्मिन्स् , क्षत्रियस् and वैश्यस् . If any one of these castes drinks he should drink water after performing penance or live eating पिप्पली (long pepper) for a year or eat oil cake at night for a year. If one drinks water in a pot used for taking liquor one should observe the प्रायश्चित्त for seven days. If he drinks water from a चाण्डाल he should observe the प्रायश्चित्त for six days. If one eats rice from a चाण्डाल one should observe चान्द्रायण . (an expiatory penance of decreasing and then increasing food according to the waxing and waning of the moon). If one eats food in the house of a शूद्र during times of distress, one would be absolved of the sin by repentance alone. Taking another man's property and appropriating it to himself is called theft. He who steals gold should be struck on the head by a wooden pestle by the king and killed. Alternatively he should live for twelve years with matted hair, eating one time a day only such things as leaves, fruits and roots and lying on earth. He who steals diamonds, pearls, corals, copper, silver, iron, bronze and granite stones should fast for twelve years. He who enjoys sexual intercourse with his father's wife, own sister, daughter of his preceptor or wife of the preceptor should burn himself in a hot iron pot. Alternatively he should embrace a red hot iron idol of a woman and die. (Chapters 183 and 184, Agni Purāṇa) .