Chapter 26 - The Superintendent of Slaughter-house

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

When a person entraps, kills, or molests deer, bison, birds, and fish which are declared to be under state protection or which live in forests under state protection (abhayāraṇya), he shall be punished with the highest amercement.

Householders trespassing in forest preserves shall be punished with the middlemost amercement.

When a person entraps, kills or molests either fish or birds that do not prey upon other animals, he shall be fined 26¾ paṇas; and when he does the same to deer and other beasts, he shall be fined twice as much.

Of beasts of prey that have been captured,^[1] the superintendent shall take one-sixth; of fish and birds (of similar nature), he shall take one-tenth or more than one-tenth; and of deer and other beasts (mṛgapaśu), one-tenth or more than one-tenth as toll.

One-sixth of live animals, such as birds and beasts, shall be let off in forests under state protection.

Elephants, horses or animals having the form of a man, bull or an ass living in oceans, as well as fish in tanks, lakes, channels and rivers; and such game birds as krauñca (a kind of heron), utkrośaka (osprey), dātyūha (a sort of cuckoo), haṃsa (swan), cakravāka (a brahmany duck), jīvañjīvaka (a kind of pheasant), bhṛṅgarāja (Lanius malabaricus), cakora (partridge), mattakokila (cuckoo), peacock, parrot and madanaśārika (maina) as well as other auspicious animals, whether birds or beasts, shall be protected from all kinds of molestations.

Those who violate the above rule shall be punished with the first amercement.

(Butchers) shall sell fresh and boneless flesh of beasts (mṛgapaśu) just killed.

If they sell bony flesh, they shall give an equivalent compensation (pratipāka).

If there is any diminution in weight owing to the use of a false balance, they shall give eight times the diminution.

Cattle such as a calf, a bull, or a milch cow shall not be slaughtered.

He who slaughters or tortures them to death shall be fined 50 paṇas.

The flesh of animals which have been killed outside the slaughterhouse (parisūna), headless, legless and boneless flesh, rotten flesh, and the flesh of animals which have suddenly died shall not be sold. Otherwise a fine of 12 paṇas shall be imposed.

Cattle, wild beasts, elephants (vyāla), and fish living in forests under state protection shall, if they become of vicious nature, be entrapped and killed outside the forest preserve.^[2]

[Thus ends Chapter XXVI, “The Superintendent of Slaughter-House,” in Book II, “The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya. End of the forty-seventh chapter from the beginning.]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Parigṛhīta may mean protected, and aparigṛhīta not protected.

[2]:

In śloka-metre.