Chapter 13 - Punishment for Violating Justice

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

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 Kṣatriya to do the same shall be punished with the middlemost amercement; a Vaiśya, with the first amercement; and a Śūdra, with a fine of 54 paṇas.^[1]

Those who voluntarily partake of whatever is condemned, either as food or drink, shall be outcasts.

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 pedlars 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 corarajjuka shall make good the loss. If the loss of merchandise occurs in such parts of the country as are not provided even with such security (a corarajjuka), 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.^[2]

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.

Gutting 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 waving 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.(saṃghaṭṭana).^[3]

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 droṇa), 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.”^[4]

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 quiet from rescuing though entreated, he shall be punished with twice the first 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).^[5]

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 paṇas. He who drives away the above animals shall be punished with the highest amercement.

When a person carries^[6] 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.^[7] 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.

Whatever a man attempts to do to others by witchcraft shall be (practically) applied to the doer himself. Witchcraft 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 middlemost amercement.

When a man performs witchcraft 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 be put to death, while any woman who yields herself to such an offender shall also receive similar punishment.^[8] Any woman who yields herself to a slave, a servant, or a hired labourer shall be similarly punished.

A Kṣatriya who commits adultery with an unguarded Brāhman woman shall be punished with the highest amercement; a Vaiśya doing the same shall be deprived of the whole of his property; and a Śūdra shall be burnt alive wound round in mats.

Whoever commits adultery with the queen of the land shall be burnt alive in a vessel (kumbhīpāka).^[9]

A man who commits adultery with a woman of low caste shall be banished, with prescribed mark branded on his forehead, or shall be degraded^[10] to the same caste.

A Śūdra or a Śvapāka who commits adultery with a woman^[11] of low caste shall be put to death, while the woman shall have her ears and nose cut off.^[12]

Adultery with a nun (pravrajitā) shall be punishable with a fine of 24 paṇas, while the nun who submits herself shall also pay a similar fine.^[13]

A man who forces his connection with a harlot shall be fined 12 paṇas.

When many persons perform witchcraft towards a single woman, each of them shall be punished with a fine of 24 paṇas.^[14]

When a man has connection with a woman against the order of nature (a-yonau), he shall be punished with the first amercement.^[15]

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 paṇas; when he commits the same act with idols (representatives) of goddesses (daivatapratimā), he shall be fined twice as much.

*When the king punishes an innocent man, he shall throw into water dedicating to god Varuṇa a fine equal to thirty times the unjust imposition; and this amount shall afterwards be distributed among the Brāhmans.^[16]

* By this act, the king will be free from the sin of unjust imposition; for king Varuṇa is the ruler of sinners among men.

[Thus ends Chapter XIII, “Punishment for Violating Justice,” in. Book IV, “The Removal of Thorns” of the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya. End of the ninetieth chapter from the beginning.

With this ends the Fourth Book, “The Removal of Thoms” of the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya.]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Y. 2, 296.

[2]:

Y. 2, 271-72; N. 14, 23.

[3]:

Y. 2, 298.

[4]:

The Munich Manuscript omits the portion, “Throwing sticks, mud... washing the legs.”

[5]:

Y. 2, 300.

[6]:

Vāhayātaḥ =when a man steals.—Meyer.

[7]:

Y.2, 299; M. 8, 291, 295.

[8]:

Y. 3, 233.

[9]:

Y. 2, 282.

[10]:

Y. 2, 294.

[11]:

“With an Ārya woman.”—Munich Manuscript.

[12]:

Y. 2, 286.

[13]:

M. 8, 376.

[14]:

Y. 1, 291.

[15]:

Y. 2, 293.

[16]:

Y. 2,307.