Chapter 1 - Means to Injure an Enemy

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

In order to protect the institution of the four castes, such measures as are treated of in secret science shall be applied against the wicked. Through the instrumentality of such men or women of Mleccha class as can put on disguises appropriate to different countries, arts, or professions, or as can put on the appearance of a hump-backed, dwarfish, or short-sized person, or of a dumb, deaf, idiot, or blind person, kālakūta and other manifold poisons should be administered in the diet and other physical enjoyments of the wicked. Spies lying in wait or living as inmates (in the same house) may make use of weapons on occasions of royal sports or musical and other entertainments. Spies, under the disguise of night-walkers (rātricāri) or of fire-keepers (agnijīvi) may set fire (to the houses of the wicked).

The powder (prepared from the carcass) of animals such as citra (?), bheka (frog), kauṇḍinyaka (?), kṛkaṇa (perdix sylvatika), pañcakuṣṭha (?), and śatapadi (centipede); or of animals such as uccidiṅga (crab), kambali (?), kṛkalāsa (lizard), with the powder of the bark of śatakanda (Phyalis flexuosa); or of animals such as gṛhagaulika (a small house-lizard), andhāhika (a blind snake), krakaṇṭhaka (a kind of partridge), pūtikīṭa (a stinking insect), and gomārika (?), combined with the juice of bhallātaka (Semecarpus anacardium), and valgaka (?)—the smoke caused by burning the above powders causes instantaneous death.

* Any of the (above) insects may be heated with a black snake and priyaṅgu (panic seed) and reduced to powder. This mixture, when burnt, causes instantaneous death.

The powder prepared from the roots of dhāmārgava (luffa foetida) and yātudhāna (?) mixed with the powder of the flower of bhaliātaka (Semecarpus anacardium) causes, when administered, death in the course of half a month. The root of vyāghāta (casia fistula) reduced to powder with-the flower of bhallātaka (Semecarpus anacardium) mixed with the essence of an insect (kīṭa) causes, when administered, death in the course of a month.

As much as a kalā (16th of a tola) to men; twice as much to mules and horses; and four times as much to elephants and camels.

The smoke caused by burning the powder of śatakardama (?), uccidiṅga (crab), karavīra (nerium odorum), kaṭutumbi (a kind of bitter gourd), and fish, together with the chaff of the grains of madana (?) and kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum), or with the chaff of the seeds of hastikarṇa (caster oil tree) and palāśa (butea frondosa) destroys animal life as for as it is carried off by the wind.

The smoke caused by burning the powder of pūtikiṭa (a stinking insect), fish, kaṭutumbi (a kind of bitter gourd), the bark of śatakardama (?), and indragopa (the insect cochineal), or the powder of pūtikīṭa, kṣudrārāla (the resin of the plant, shorea robusta), and hemavidāri (?), mixed with the powder of the hoof and horn of a goat, causes blindness.

The smoke caused by burning the leaves of pūtikarañja (guilandina bonducella), yellow arsenic realgar, the seeds of guñja (abrus precatorius), the chaff of the seeds of red cotton, āsphota (a plant, careya arborea), khāca (salt?), and the dung and urine of a cow, causes blindness.

The smoke caused by burning the skin of a snake, the dung of the cow and the horse, and the head of a blind snake causes blindness.

The smoke caused by burning the powder made of the mixture of the dung and urine of pigeons, frogs, flesh-eating animals, elephants, men, and boars, the chaff and powder of barley mixed with kāsisa (green sulphate of iron), rice, the seeds of cotton, kuṭaja (nerium antidysentericum), and kośātaki (luffa pentandra), cow’s urine, the root of bhāṇḍi (hydroeotyle asiatica), the powder of nimba (nimba meria), śigru (hyperanthera morunga), phaṇirjaka (a kind of tulasi plant), kṣībapīluka (ripe coreya arborea), and bhāṅga (as common intoxicating drug), the skin of a snake and fish, and the powder of the nails and tusk of an elephant, all mixed with the chaff of madana and kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum), or with the chaff of the seeds of hastikarṇa (castor oil tree) and palāśa (butea frondosa) causes instantaneous death wherever the smoke is carried off by the wind.

When a man who has kept his eyes secure with the application of ointment and medicinal water burns, on the occasion of the commencement of a battle and the assailing of forts, the roots of kālī (tragia involucrata), kuṣṭha (costus), naḍa (a kind of reed), and śatāvarī (asperagus racemosus), or the powder of (the skin of) a snake, the tail of a peacock, kṛkaṇa (a kind of partridge), and pañcakuṣṭha (?), together with the chaff as previously described or with wet or dry chaff, the smoke caused thereby destroys the eye of all animals.

The ointment prepared by mixing the excretion of śārikā (maina), kapota (pigeon), baka (crane), and balākā (a kind of small crane), with the milk of maṅkāṣī (hyperanthera morunga), pīluka (a species of careya arborea) and snuhi (euphorbia), causes blindness and poisons water.

The mixture of yavaka (a kind of barley), the root of śālā (achyrantes triandria), the fruit of madana (dattūra plant?), the leaves of jāti (nutmeg?), and the urine of a man mixed with the powder of the root of plakṣa (fig tree), and vidāri (liquorice), as well as the essence of the decoction of musta (a kind of poison), udumbara (glomerous fig tree), and kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum), or with decoction of hastikarṇa (castor oil tree), and palāśa (butea frondosa), is termed the juice of madana (madanayoga).

The mixture of the powders of śṛṅgi (atis betula), gaumevṛkṣa (?), kaṇṭakāra (solanum xanthocarpum), and mayūrapadi (?), the powder of guñja seeds, lāṅgulī (jusseina repens), viṣamūlika (?), and iṅgudi (heart-pea), and the powder of karavīra (oleander), akṣipīluka (careya arborea), arka plant, and mṛgamāriṇī (?), combined with the decoction of madana and kodrava or with that of hastikarṇa and palāśa, is termed madana mixture (madanayoga).

The combination of (the above two) mixtures poisons grass and water when applied to them.

The smoke caused by burning the mixture of the powders of kṛkaṇa (a kind of partridge), kṛkalāsa (lizard), gṛhagaulika (a small house-lizard), and andhāhika (a blind snake), destroys the eyes and causes madness.

The (smoke caused by burning the) mixture of kṛkalāsa and gṛhagaulika causes leprosy.

The smoke caused by burning the same mixture together with the entrails of citrabheka (a kind of frog of variegated colour), and madhu (celtis orientalis?), causes gonorrhoea.

The same mixture mixed with human blood causes consumption.

The powder of dūṣīviṣa (?), madana (dattūra plant?), and kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum), destroys the tongue.

The mixture of the powder of mātṛvāhaka (?), jalūkā (leech), the tail of a peacock, the eyes of a frog, and pilukā (careya arborea), causes the disease known as viṣūcika.

The mixture of pañcakuṣṭha (?), kauṇḍinyaka (?), rājavṛkṣa (cassia fistula), and madhupuṣpa (bassia latifolia), and madhu (honey?), causes fever.

The mixture prepared from the powder of the knot of the tongue of bhāsa (a bird), and nakula (mungoose), reduced to a paste with the milk of a she-donkey, causes both dumbness and deafness.

The proportion of a dose to bring on the desired deformities in men and animals in the course of a fortnight or a month is as laid down before.

Mixtures become very powerful when, in the case of drugs, they are prepared by the process of decoction; and in the case of animals, by the process of making powders; or in all cases by the process of decoction.

Whoever is pierced by the arrow prepared from the grains of śālmali (bombax heptaphyllum) and vidāri (liquorice) reduced to powder and mixed with the powder of mūlavatsanābha (a kind of poison) and smeared over with the blood of cucundari (musk rat) bites some ten other persons, who in their turn bite others.

The mixture prepared from the flowers of bhallātaka (semecarpus anacardium), yātudhāna (?), dhāmārgava (achyranthes-aspera), and bāṇa (sal tree), mixed with the powder of elā (large cardamom), kākṣi (red aluminious earth), guggulu (bdellium), and hālāhala (a kind of poison), together with the blood of a goat and a man, causes biting madness.

When half a dharaṇa of this mixture, together with flour and oil-cakes, is thrown into water of a reservoir measuring a hundred bows in length, it vitiates the whole mass of water; all the fish swallowing or touching this mixture become poisonous; and whoever drinks or touches this water will be poisoned.

No sooner does a person condemned to death pull out from the earth an alligator or iguana (godhā) which, with three or five handfuls of both red and white mustard seeds, is entered into the earthy than he dies at its sight.

When, on the days of the stars of kṛttikā or bharaṇī and following the method of performing fearful rites, an oblation with a black cobra emitting forth at the shock of lightning or caught hold of by means of the sticks of a tree struck by lightning and perfumed is made into the fire, that fire continues to bum unquenchably.

* An oblation of honey shall be made into the fire fetched from the house of a blacksmith; of spirituous liquor into the fire brought from the house of a vintner; of clarified butter into the fire of a sacrificer (?)

* of a garland into the fire kept by a sacrificer with one wife; of mustard seeds into the fire kept by an adulterous woman; of curds into the fire kept during the birth of a child; of rice-grain into the fire of a sacrificer;

* of flesh into the fire kept by a Caṇḍāla; of human flesh into the fire burning in cremation grounds; an oblation of the serum of the flesh of a goat and a man shall be made by means of a sacrificial ladle into the fire which is made of all the above fires;

* repeating the mantras addressed to the fire, an oblation of the wooden pieces of rājavṛkṣa (cassia fistula) into the same fire. This fire will unquenchably burn, deluding the eyes of the enemies.

Salutation to Aditi, salutation to Anumati, salutation to Sarasvatī and salutation to the Sun; oblation to Agni, oblation to Soma, oblation to the earth, and oblation to the atmosphere.

[Thus ends Chapter I, “Means to Injure an Enemy,” in Book XIV, “Secret Means” of the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya. End of the hundred and forty-sixth chapter from the beginning.]