When a man falsely accuses another of having committed theft while in reality the latter is guilty of adultery, the complainant shall be fined 500 panas.
He who lets off an adulterer by receiving gold shall pay a fine of eight times the value of the gold (he received).
(Adultery may be proved by circumstances such as) hand to Kautilya's Arthashastra hand fight, abduction, any marks made on the body of the culprits, opinion of experts on consideration of the circumstances, or the statements of women involved in it.
When a man rescues a woman from enemies, forests, or floods, or saves the life of a woman who has been abandoned in forests, forsaken in famine, or thrown out as if dead, he may enjoy her as agreed upon during the rescue.
A woman of high caste, with children and having no desire for sexual enjoyment, may be let off after receiving an adequate amount of ransom.
* Those women who have been rescued from the hands of thieves, from floods, in famine, or in national calamities, or who, having been abandoned, missed, or thrown out as if dead in forests, have been taken home may be enjoyed by the rescuer as agreed upon.
* But no such women as have been cast out under royal edict, or by their own kinsmen; nor such as belong to high caste, or do not like to be rescued, nor even those who have children shall be rescued either for ransom or for their person.
[Thus ends Chapter XII, "Sexual Intercourse with Immature Girls," in Book IV, "The Removal of Thorns" of 'the Arthasdstra of Kautilya. End of the eighty-ninth chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER XIII. PUNISHMENT FOR VIOLATING JUSTICE.
HE who causes a Brahman to partake of whatever food or drink is prohibited shall be punished with the highest amercement. He who causes a Kshatriya to do the same shall be punished with Kautilya's Arthashastra the middlemost amercement; a Vaisya, with the first amercement; and a Siidra, with a fine of 54 panas.
Those who voluntarily partake of whatever is condemned either as food or drink shall be outcast.
He who forces his entrance into another's house during the day shall be punished with the first amercement; and during the night with the middlemost. Any person who with weapon in hand enters into another's house either during the day or night shall be punished with the highest amercement.
When beggars or peddlers and lunatics or mad persons attempt to enter into a house by force, or when neighbours force their entrance into a house in danger, they shall not be punished provided no such entrance is specially prohibited.
He who mounts the roof of his own house after midnight shall be punished with the first amercement; and of another's house, with the middlemost amercement.
Those who break the fences of villages, gardens, or fields shall also be punished with the middlemost amercement.
Having made the value, etc., of their merchandise known (to the headman of the village), traders shall halt in some part of a village. When any part of their merchandise which has not been truly sent out of the village during the night has been stolen or lost, the headman of the village shall make good the loss.
Whatever of their merchandise is stolen or lost in the intervening places between any two villages shall the superintendent of pasture lands make good. If there are no pasture lands (in such places), the officer called Chorarajjuka shall make good the loss. If the loss of merchandise occurs in such parts of the Kautilya's Arthashastra country as are not provided even with such security (a Chorarajjuka), the people in the boundaries of the place shall contribute to make up the loss. If there are no people in the boundaries, the people of five or ten villages of the neighbourhood shall make up the loss.
Harm due to the construction of unstable houses, carts with no support or with a beam or weapon hung above or with damaged support or with no covering, and harm due to causing a cart to fall in pits, or a tank, or from a dam, shall be treated as assault.
Cutting of trees, stealing the rope with which a tameable animal is tied, employing untamed quadrupeds, throwing sticks, mud, stones, rods, or arrows on chariots or elephants, raising or waiving the arm against chariots or elephants, shall also be treated as assault.
(The charioteer) who cries out (to a passer-by) 'get out' shall not be punished for collision (samghattane).
A man who is hurt to death by an elephant under provocation (caused by himself) shall supply not only a kumbha of liquor (less by a drona), garlands, and scents but also as much cloth as is necessary to wash the tusks; for death caused by an elephant is as meritorious as the sacred bath taken at the end of a horse-sacrifice. Hence this offer (of liquor, etc.), is known as 'washing the legs.'
When an indifferent passer-by is killed by an elephant the driver shall be punished with the highest amercement.
When the owner of a horned or tusked animal does not rescue a man from being destroyed by his animal, he shall be punished with the first amercement. If he heedlessly keeps quite from rescuing though entreated, he shall be punished with twice the first Kautilya's Arthashastra amercement.
When a person causes or allows horned or tusked animals to destroy each other, he shall not only pay a fine equal to the value of the destroyed animal or animals, but also make good the loss (to the sufferer).
When a man rides over an animal which is left off in the name of gods, or over a bull, an ox, or over a female calf, he shall be fined 500 panas. He who drives away the above animals shall be punished with the highest amercement.
When a person carries off such inferior quadrupeds as are productive of wool or milk, or are useful for loading or riding, he shall not only pay a fine equal to their value, but also restore them.
The same punishment shall be imposed in the case of driving away inferior quadrupeds for purposes other than ceremonials performed in honour of gods or ancestors.
When an animal which has its nose-string cut off or which is not well tamed to yoke causes hurt; or when an animal, either coming furiously against a man or receding backwards with the cart to which it is tied, causes hurt or when an animal causes hurt in confusion brought about by the thronging of people and other animals; the owner of the animal shall not be punished;, but for hurt caused to men under circumstances other than the above, fines shall be imposed as laid down before, while the loss of any animal life due to such causes shall be made good. If the driver of a cart or carriage causing hurt is a minor, the master inside the cart or carriage shall be punished. In the absence of the master, any person who is seated inside, or the driver himself if he has attained his majority shall be punished. Carts or carriages occupied by a minor or with no person shall be taken possession of by the king.
Kautilya's Arthashastra Whatever a man attempts to do to others by witch-craft shall be (practically) applied to the doer himself. Witch-craft merely to arouse love in an indifferent wife, in a maiden by her lover, or in a wife by her husband is no offence. But when it is injurious to others, the doer shall be punished with the middle most amercement.
When a man performs witch-craft to win the sister of his own father or mother, the wife of a maternal uncle or of a preceptor, his own daughter-in-law, daughter, or sister, he shall have his limb cut off and also put to death,, while any woman who yields herself to such an offender shall also, receive similar punishment. Any woman who yields herself to a slave, a servant, or a hired labourer shall be similarly punished.
A Kshatriya who commits adultery with an unguarded Brahman woman shall be punished with the highest amercement; a Vaisya doing the same shall be deprived of the whole of his property; and a Sudra shall be burnt alive wound round in mats.
Whoever commits adultery with the queen of the land shall be burnt alive in a vessel (kumbhilpdkah.)
A man who commits adultery with a woman of low caste shall be banished with prescribed mark branded on his fore-head, or shall be degraded to the same caste.
A Sudra or a svapdka who commits adultery with a woman of low caste shall be put to death, while the woman shall have her ears and nose cut off.
Adultery with a nun (pravrajitd) shall be punishable with a fine of 24 panas while the nun who submits herself shall also pay a similar fine.
Kautilya's Arthashastra A man who forces his connection with a harlot shall be fined 12 panas.
When many persons perform witch-craft towards a single woman, each of them shall be punished with a fine of 24 panas.
When a man has connection with a woman against the order of nature (a-yonau), he shall be punished with the first amercement.
A man having sexual intercourse with another man shall also pay the first amercement.
* When a senseless man has sexual intercourse with beasts, he shall be fined 12 panas; when he comits the same act with idols (representatives) of goddesses (daivatapratimd), he shall be fined twice as much.
* When the king punishes an innocent man, he shall throw into water dedicating to god Varuna a fine equal to thirty times the unjust imposition; and this amount shall afterwards be distributed among the Brdhmans.
* By this act, the king will be free from the sin of unjust imposition; for king Varuna is the ruler of sinners among men.
[Thus ends Chapter XIII, "Punishment for violating justice" in Book IV, "The Removal of Thorns" of 'the Arthas as tra of Kautilya. End of the ninetieth chapter from the beginning. With this ends the fourth Book, "The removal of of thorns" of the Arthasdstra of Kautilya.]
From: Kautilya. Arthashastra. Translated by R. Shamasastry. Bangalore: Government Press, 1915, 253-296.
Kautilya's Arthashastra Book V, "The Conduct of Courtiers" CHAPTER I. CONCERNING THE AWARDS OF PUNISHMENTS.
MEASURES necessary to remove the thorns of public peace both in fortified cities and country parts have been dealt with. We shall now proceed to treat of measures to suppress treason against the king and his kingdom.
With regard to those chiefs who, though living by service under the king, are inimically disposed towards him, or have taken the side of his enemy, a spy with secret mission or one in the guise of an ascetic and devoted to the king's cause shall set to work as described before; or a spy trained in the art of sowing the seeds of dissension may set to work, as will be described in connection with the 'Invasion of an enemy's villages.'
The king in the interests of righteousness may inflict punishment in secret on those courtiers or confederacy of chiefs who are dangerous to the safety of the kingdom and who cannot be put down in open daylight.
A spy may instigate the brother of a seditious minister and with necessary inducements, take him to the king for an interview. The king, having conferred upon him the title to possess and enjoy the property of his seditious brother, may cause him to attack his brother; and when he murders his brother with a weapon or with poison, he shall be put to death in the same spot under the plea that he is a parricide.
The same measure will explain the proceedings to be taken Kautilya's Arthashastra against a seditious Pdrasava (one who is begotten by a Brahman on Sudra wife), and a seditious son of a woman- servant.
Or instigated by a spy, the brother of a seditious minister may put forward his claim for inheritance. While the claimant is lying at night at the door of the house of the seditious minister or elsewhere, a fiery spy (tishna) may murder him and declare "Alas! the claimant for inheritance is thus murdered (by his brother)." Then taking the side of the injured party, the king may punish the other (the seditious minister).
Spies in the presence of a seditious minister may threaten to beat his brother claiming inheritance. Then "while the claimant is lying at the door of, etc." as before.
The same proceedings will explain the quarrel fraudulently caused to crop up between any two seditious ministers, in whose family a son or a father has had sexual intercourse with a daughter-in-law, or a brother with the wife of another brother.
A spy may flatter to the vanity of a seditious minister's son, of gentle manners and dignified conduct by telling him "Though thou art the king's son, thou art kept here in fear of enemies." The king may secretly honour this deluded person and tell him that "apprehending danger from the minister, I have put off thy installation, though thou hast attained the age of heir apparent." Then the spy may instigate him to murder the minister. The task being accomplished, he, too, may be put to death in the same spot under the plea that he is a parricide.
A mendicant woman, having captivated the wife of a seditious minister by administering such medicines as excite the feelings of love, may through that wife contrive to poison the minister.
Kautilya's Arthashastra Failing these measures, the king may send a seditious minister with an army of inefficient soldiers and fiery spies to put down a rebellious wild tribe or a village, or to set up a new superintendent of countries or of boundaries in a locality bordering upon a wilderness, or to bring under control a highly-rebellious city, or to fetch a caravan bringing in the tribute due to the king from a neighbouring country. In an affray (that ensues in consequence of the above mission) either by day or at night, the fiery spies, or spies under the guise of robbers (pratirodhaka) may murder the minister and declare that he was killed in the battle.
While marching against an enemy or being engaged in sports, the king may send for his seditious ministers for an interview. While leading the ministers to the king, fiery spies with concealed weapons shall, in the middle enclosure of the king's pavilion, offer themselves to be searched for admittance into the interior, and, when caught, with their weapons by the door-keepers, declare themselves to be the accomplices of the seditious ministers. Having made this affair known to the public, the door-keepers shall put the ministers to death, and in the place of the fiery spies, some others are to be hanged.
While engaged in sports outside the city, the king may honour his seditious ministers with accommodation close to his own. A woman of bad character under the guise of the queen may be caught in the apartment of these ministers and steps may be taken against them as before.
A sauce-maker or a sweetmeat-maker may request of a seditious minister some sauce and sweetmeat by flattering him— "thou alone art worthy of such things." Having mixed those two things and half a cup of water with poison, he may substitute those things in the luncheon (of the king) outside the city. Having made this event known to the public, the king may put them (the Kautilya's Arthashastra minister and the cook) to death under the plea that they are poisoners.
If a seditious minister is addicted to witchcraft, a spy under the guise of an accomplished wizard may make him believe that by manifesting (in witchcraft) any one of the beautiful things,— a pot containing an alligator, or a tortoise or crab— he can attain his desired end. While, with this belief, he is engaged in the act of witchcraft, a spy may murder him either by poisoning him or by striking him with an iron bar, and declare that he brought his own death by his proclivity to witchcraft.
A spy under the guise of a physician may make a seditious minister believe that he is suffering from a fatal or incurable disease and contrive to poison him while prescribing medicine and diet to him.
Spies under the guise of sauce-makers and sweet meat-makers may, when opportunity occurs, contrive to poison him.
Such are the secret measures to get rid of seditious persons.
As to measures to get rid of seditious persons conspiring against both the king and his kingdom: -- When a seditious person is to be got rid of, another seditious person with an army of inefficient soldiers and fiery spies may be sent with the mission: "Go out into this fort or country and raise an army or some revenue; deprive a courtier of his gold; bring by force the daughter of a courtier; build a fort; open a garden; construct a road for traffic; set up a new village; exploit a mine; form forest-preserves for timber or elephants; set up a district or a boundary; and arrest and capture those who prevent your work or do not give you help." Similarly the other party may be instructed Kautilya's Arthashastra to curb the spirit of the above person. When a quarrel arises between the two parties at work, fiery spies under cover may throw their weapons and murder the seditious person; and others are to be arrested and punished for the crime.
When with reference to boundaries, field-produce, and boundaries of houses, or with reference to any damage done to things, instruments, crops, and beasts of burden or on occasions of witnessing spectacles and processions, any dispute, real or caused by fiery spies, arises in seditious towns, villages, or families, fiery spies may hurl weapons and say: "This is what is done to them who quarrel with this man"; and for this offence others may be punished.
When there arises a quarrel among seditious persons, fiery spies may set fire to their fields, harvest-grounds, and houses, hurl weapons on their relatives, friends and beasts of burden, and say that they did so at the instigation of the seditious; and for this offence others may be punished.
Spies may induce seditious persons in forts or in country parts to be each other's guests at a dinner in which poisoners may administer poison; and for this offence others may be punished.
A mendicant woman may delude a seditious chief of a district into the belief that the wife, daughter, or daughter-in-law of another seditious chief of another district loves the former. She may take the jewellery which the deluded chief gives her (for delivery to the wife, daughter, etc.), and, presenting it before the other chief, narrate that this chief in the pride of his youth makes love to the other's wife, daughter, or daughter-in-law. When at night a duel arises between the two chiefs, etc., as before.
The prince or the commander of the army may confer some benefit upon such inimical persons as have been cowed down by a Kautilya's Arthashastra seditious army, and may declare his displeasure against them afterwards. And then some other persons, who are equally cowed down by another seditious army of the king, may be sent against the former along with an army of inefficient soldiers and fiery spies. Thus all the measures to get rid of seditious persons are of the same type.
Whoever among the sons of the seditious persons thus put down shows no perturbance of mind shall receive his father's property. It is only thus that the whole of the country will loyally follow the sons and grandsons of the king, and will be free from all troubles caused by men.
* Possessed of forbearance and apprehending no disturbance either in the present or future, the king may award punishments in secret both upon his own subjects and those who uphold the enemy's cause.
[Thus ends Chapter I, "Concerning the Awards of Punishments" in Book V. "The Conduct of Courtiers" of the Arthasdstra of Kautilya. End of the ninety-first chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER II. REPLENISHMENT OF THE TREASURY.
THE king who finds himself in a great financial trouble and needs money, may collect (revenue by demand). In such parts of his country as depend solely upon rain for water and are rich in grain, he may demand of his subjects one-third or one-fourth of their grain according to their capacity. He shall never demand of such of his subjects as live in tracts of middle or low quality; nor of people who are of great help in the construction of fortifications, Kautilya's Arthashastra gardens, buildings, roads for traffic, colonisation of waste lands, exploitation of mines, and formation of forest-preserves for timber and, elephants; nor of people who live on the border of his kingdom or who have not enough subsistence. He shall, on the other hand, supply with grain and cattle those who colonise waste lands. He may purchase for gold one-fourth of what remains, after deducting as much of the grain as is required for seeds and subsistence of his subjects. He shall avoid the property of forest tribes, as well as of Brdhmans learned in the Vedas (srotriya). He may purchase this, too, offering favourable price (to the owners). Failing these measures, the servants of the collector-general may prevail upon the peasantry to raise summer crops. Saying that double the amount of fines will be levied from those who are guilty (among peasants), they (the king's employees) shall sow seeds in sowing seasons. When crops are ripe, they may beg a portion of vegetable and other ripe produce except what is gleaned in the form of vegetables and grains. They shall avoid the grains scattered in harvest-fields, so that they may be utilised in making offerings to gods and ancestors on occasions of worship, in feeding cows, or for the subsistence of mendicants and village employees (grdlmabhritaka).
Whoever conceals his own grain shall pay a fine of eight times the amount in each kind; and whoever steals the crops of another person shall pay a fine of fifty times the amount, provided the robber belongs to the same community (svavarga); but if he is a foreigner, he shall be put to death. They (the king's employees) may demand of cultivators one-fourth of their grain, and one-sixth of forest produce (yanya) and of such commodities as cotton, wax, fabrics, barks of trees, hemp, wool, silk, medicines, sandal, flowers, fruits, vegetables, firewood, bamboos, flesh, and dried flesh. They may also take one-half of all ivory and skins of animals, and punish with the first amercement those who trade in any article without obtaining a license from the king. So much for Kautilya's Arthashastra demands on cultivators.
Merchants dealing in gold, silver, diamonds, precious stones, pearls, coral, horses, and elephants shall pay 50 karas. Those that trade in cotton threads, clothes, copper, brass, bronze, sandal, medicines, and liquor shall pay 40 karas. Those that trade in grains, liquids, metals (loha), and deal with carts shall pay 30 karas. Those that carry on their trade in glass (kacha); and also artisans of fine workmanship shall pay 20 karas. Articles of inferior workmanship, as well as those who keep prostitutes, shall pay 10 karas. Those that trade in firewood, bamboos, stones, earthen-pots, cooked rice, and vegetables shall pay 5 karas. Dramatists and prostitutes shall pay half of their wages. The entire property of goldsmiths shall be taken possession of; and no offence of theirs shall be forgiven; for they carry on their fraudulent trade while pretending at the same time to be honest and innocent. So much about demands on merchants.
Persons rearing cocks and pigs shall surrender to the Government half of their stock of animals. Those that rear inferior animals shall give one-sixth. Those that keep cows, buffaloes, mules, asses, and camels shall give one-tenth (of their live-stock). Those who maintain prostitutes (bandhakiposhaka), shall, with the help of women noted for their beauty and youth in the service of the king, collect revenue. So much about demands on herdsmen.
Such demands shall be made only once and never twice. When such demands are not made, the collector general shall seek subscriptions from citizens and country people alike under false pretences of carrying this or that kind of business. Persons taken in concert shall publicly pay handsome donations and with this example, the king may demand of others among his subjects. Spies posing as citizens shall revile those who pay less. Wealthy persons may be requested to give as much of their gold as they can. Those Kautilya's Arthashastra who, of their own accord or with the intention of doing good, offer their wealth to the king shall be honoured with a rank in the court, an umbrella, or a turban or some ornaments in return for their gold. Spies, under the guise of sorcerers, shall, under the pretence of ensuring safety, carry away the money, not only of the society of heretics and of temples, but also of a dead man and of a man whose house is burnt, provided that it is not enjoyable by Brdhmans.
The Superintendent of Religious Institutions may collect in one place the various kinds of property of the gods of fortified cities and country parts and carry away the property (to the king's treasury).
Or having on some night set up a god or an altar, or having opened a sacred place of ascetics or having pointed out an evil omen, the king may collect subsistence under the pretence of holding processions and congregations (to avert calamities).
Or else he shall proclaim the arrival of gods, by pointing out to the people any of the sacred trees in the king's garden which has produced untimely flowers and fruits.
Or by causing a false panic owing to the arrival of an evil spirit on a tree in the city, wherein a man is hidden making all sorts of devilish noises, the king's spies, under the guise of ascetics, may collect money (with a view to propitiate the evil spirit and send it back).
Or spies may call upon spectators to see a serpent with numberless heads in a well connected with a subterranean passage and collect fees from them for the sight. Or they may place in a borehole made in the body of an image of a serpent, or in a hole in the corner of a temple, or in the hollow of an ant-hill, a cobra, which is, by diet, rendered unconscious, and call upon credulous Kautilya's Arthashastra spectators to see it (on payment of a certain amount of fee). As to persons who are not by nature credulous, spies may sprinkle over or give a drink of, such sacred water as is mixed with anasthetic ingredients and attribute their insensibility to the curse of gods. Or by causing an outcast person (dbhitydktd) to be bitten by a cobra, spies may collect revenue under the pretext of undertaking remedial measures against ominous phenomena.
Or one of the king's spies in the garb of a merchant, may become a partner of a rich merchant and carry on trade in concert with him. As soon as a considerable amount of money has been gathered as sale -proceeds, deposits and loans, he may cause himself to be robbed of the amount.
This will explain what the examiner of coins and the state-goldsmith may also do.
Or else a spy, in the garb of a rich merchant, or a real rich merchant famous for his vast commerce, may borrow or take on pledge vast quantities of gold, silver, and other commodities, or borrow from corporations bar gold, or coined gold for various kinds of merchandise to be procured from abroad. After having done this he may allow himself to be robbed of it the same night.
Prostitute spies under the garb of chaste women, may cause themselves to be enamoured of persons who are seditious. No sooner are the seditious persons seen within the abode of the female spies than they shall be seized and their property confiscated to the Government. Or whenever a quarrel arises between any two seditious parties of the same family, poisoners, previously engaged for the purpose, may administer poison to one party; and the other party may be accused of the offence and deprived of their, property.
Kautilya's Arthashastra An outcast, under the guise of a high-born man, may claim from a seditious person a large amount of money professed to have been placed in the latter's custody by the claimant, or a large debt outstanding against the seditious person, or a share of parental property. (An outcast) may pretend to be the slave of a seditious person; and he may represent the wife, daughter, or daughter-in-law of the seditious person as a slave- woman or as his own wife; and when the outcast is lying at the door of the seditious person's house at night or is living elsewhere, a fiery spy may murder him and declare:— "The claimant (of his own property or wife) has been thus killed." And for this offence others (i.e., the seditious person and his followers) shall be deprived of their property.