History of Law - 1280 BC

 A Short History of Law and Legal Systems 
1280 BC to 880 BC: The Laws of Manu

It has not yet been possible to pinpoint exactly when India's
great Laws of Manu were written. The Laws were a written
compilation of known legal rules which had been passed on from
generation to generation. It formed the basis of the caste system
in India, where people were classified by their social standing
and regulated almost all facets of India's society from contracts
to criminal law. The Laws of Manu used punishment sparingly and
only as a last resort and rarely sadistic. Amputation, though, was
a possible sentence. The members of the higher castes were
punished more severely than those of the lower castes.