<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The concept of diplomatic immunity can be found in ancient Indian epics like Ramayana (between 3000 and 2000 BC) (traditional Hindu dating: over 100,000 years ago) and Mahabharata (around 4th century BC; traditional Hindu dating: 3000 BC), where messengers and diplomats were given immunity from capital punishment . In Ramayana, when the demon king Ravana ordered the killing of Hanuman, Ravana's younger brother Vibhishana pointed out that messengers or diplomats should not be killed, as per ancient practices . </P> <P> During the evolution of international justice, many wars were considered rebellions or unlawful by one or more combatant sides . In such cases, the servants of the "criminal" sovereign were often considered accomplices and their persons violated . In other circumstances, harbingers of inconsiderable demands were killed as a declaration of war . Herodotus records that when heralds of the Persian king Xerxes demanded "earth and water" (i.e., symbols of submission) of Greek cities, the Athenians threw them into a pit and the Spartans threw them down a well for the purpose of suggesting they would find both earth and water at the bottom, these often being mentioned by the messenger as a threat of siege . However, even for Herodotus, this maltreatment of envoys is a crime, and he immediately recounts a story of divine vengeance befalling Sparta for this deed . </P>

Who has been called as diplomate in ancient india