Chapter 14 - Rules regarding Labourers; and Co-operative Undertaking

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

A servant neglecting or unreasonably putting off work for which he has received wages shall be fined 12 paṇas^[1] and be caught hold of till the work is done. He who is incapable to turn out work, or is engaged to do a mean job, or is suffering from disease, or is involved in calamities shall be shown some concession or he shall allow his master to get the work done by a substitute. The loss incurred by his master or employer owing to such delay shall be made good by extra work.^[2]

An employer may be at liberty to get the work done by (another) provided there is no such adverse condition that the former shall not employ another servant to execute the work, nor shall the latter go elsewhere for work.^[2]

An employer not taking work from his labourer or an employee not doing his employer’s work shall be fined 12 paṇas. An employee who has received wages to do a certain work which is, however, not brought to termination shall not, of his own accord, go elsewhere for work.

My preceptor holds that not taking work on the part of an employer from his employee when the latter is ready, shall be regarded as work done by the labourer.

But Kauṭilya objects to it; for wages are to be paid for work done, but not for work that is not done. If an employer, having caused his labourer to do a part of work, will not cause him to do the rest for which the latter may certainly be ready, then the unfinished portion of the work has to be regarded as finished.^[3] But owing to consideration of changes that have occurred in time and place or owing to bad workmanship of the labourer, the employer may not be pleased with what has already been turned out by the labourer. Also the workman may, if unrestrained, do more than agreed upon and thereby cause loss to the employer.^[4]

The same rules shall apply to guilds of workmen (saṅghabhṛta).^[5]

Guilds of workmen shall have a grace of seven nights over and above the period agreed upon for fulfilling their engagement.

Beyond that time they shall find substitutes and get the work completed. Without taking permission from their employer, they shall neither leave out anything undone nor carry away anything with them from the place of work. They shall be fined 24 paṇas for taking away anything and 12 paṇas for leaving out anything undone.^[6] Thus the rules regarding labourers.

Guilds of workmen (saṅghabhṛtāh, workmen employed by companies) as well as those who carry on any co-operative work (sambhūya samutthāthāraḥ) shall divide their earnings (vetana = wages) either equally or as agreed upon among themselves.

Cultivators or merchants shall, either at the end or in the middle of their cultivation or manufacture, pay to their labourers as much of the latter’s share as is proportional to the work done.^[7] If the labourers, giving up work in the middle, supply substitutes, they shall be paid their wages in full.

But when commodities are being manufactured, wages shall be paid out according to the amount of work turned out; for such payment does not affect the favourable or unfavourable results on the way (i.e. in the sale of merchandise by pedlars).

A healthy person who deserts his company after work has been begun shall be fined 12 paṇas;^[8] for none shall, of his own accord, leave his company. Any person who is found to have neglected his share of work by stealth shall be shown mercy (abhaya) for the first time, and given a proportional quantity of work anew with promise of proportional share of earnings as well. In case of negligence for a second time or of going elsewhere, he shall be thrown out of the company (pravāsana). If he is guilty of a glaring offence (mahāparādhe), he shall be treated as the condemned.^[9]

(Co-operation in Sacrificial Acts)

Priests co-operating in a sacrifice shall divide their earnings either equally or^[10] as agreed upon, excepting what is especially due to each or any of them. If a priest employed in such sacrifice as Agniṣṭoma, etc., dies after the ceremony of consecration (his claimant) shall get ⅕th of the promised or prescribed present (dakṣiṇā), after the ceremony consecrating the purchase of Soma, ¼th of the present; after the ceremony called Madhyamopasad, or Pravargyodvāsana, ⅓ of the present;^[11] and after the ceremony called Maya, ½ of the share, If in the sacrifice called Sutya, the same thing happens after the ceremony called Prātassavana, ¾ths of the share shall be paid; after the ceremony called Madhyandina, the present shall be paid in full; for by that time the payment of presents shall be over. In every sacrifice except the one called Bṛhaspatisavana, it is usual to pay presents. The same rule shall apply to the present payable in Ahargaṇas, sacrifices so called.

The surviving priests carrying the balance of the present or any other relatives of a dead priest shall perform the funeral ceremony of the dead for ten days and nights.^[12]

If the sacrificer himself (he who has instituted the sacrifice) dies, then the remaining priests shall complete the sacrifice and carry away the presents. If a sacrificer sends out any priest before completing the sacrifice, he shall be punished with the first amercement. If a sacrificer sending out a priest happens to be a person who has not kept the sacrificial fire, or to be a preceptor or one who has already performed sacrifices, then the fines shall be 100, 1,000 and 1,000 paṇas respectively.

* As it is certain that sacrificial merits fall in value when performed in company with a drunkard, the husband of a Śūdra woman, a murderer of a Brahman, or one who has violated the chastity of the wife of his preceptor, a receiver of condemnable gifts, or is a thief, or one whose performance of sacrificial acts is condemnable, it is no offence to send out such a priest.^[13]

[Thus ends Chapter XIV, “Rules regarding Labourers; and Co-operative Undertaking,” in the section of “Rules regarding Slaves and Labourers,” in Book III, “Concerning Law” of the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya. End of the seventy-first chapter from the beginning.]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

N. 6, 5.

[2]:

Corrected according to the Munich Manuscript.

[3]:

Vi. 5, 153-57.

[4]:

Y. 2, 195.

[5]:

The word may mean “workmen employed by companies.”

[6]:

The guild shall be fined 24 paṇas for dismissing any one of them; and he who on his dismissal retires from the guild without taking permission from the head of the guild shall be fined 12 panas.—T.M. Com.

[7]:

N. 6, 2.

[8]:

M. 8, 215.

[9]:

He shall be murdered in secret.—T.M. Com.

[10]:

The Munich Manuscript omits “or.” M. 8, 208.

[11]:

The text means “second share.’

[12]:

N. 3, 8.

[13]:

N. 3, 9.