Verse 8.193

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

उपधाभिश्च यः कश्चित् परद्रव्यं हरेन्नरः ।
ससहायः स हन्तव्यः प्रकाशं विविधैर्वधैः ॥ १९३ ॥

upadhābhiśca yaḥ kaścit paradravyaṃ harennaraḥ |
sasahāyaḥ sa hantavyaḥ prakāśaṃ vividhairvadhaiḥ || 193 ||

The man who may appropriate, by fraudulent means, the property of another person, should be punished publicly, along with his accomplices, with various modes of death.—(193)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Fraudulent means,’ ‘deceit,’ and ‘pretence’ are synonymous terms: and this ‘fraud’ is of several forms:—(1) ‘altering the thing’: having shown saffron, the man substitutes the kusumbha flower for it,—(2) ‘using short weights and measures,’ and so forth. The rule regarding these forms of ‘fraud’ is going to be laid down later on, under 203 et seq. The forms of ‘fraudulent moans’ meant here are—(a) ‘threatening,’ (b) promising rewards from the king, (e) promising to secure the love of a maiden, and so forth.

The man makes such false assertions to the other person as—(a) ‘robbers shall rob you, if I do not protect you,’ or (b) ‘the king was very angry with you, and I have tried much to appease him,’ or (c) ‘I shall obtain for you from the king the post of the city-officer,’ or (d) ‘I shall secure for you some other great benefit,’ or (e) ‘my daughter is very much in love with you and has sent you this present’;—under these pretexts he brings to the man some presents and takes away from him much more valuable things in return;—and in the presence of this other party he whispers something to the king, or to some other high official, and says to the man—‘I have been talking regarding your business.’

The man who, by such fraudulent means, enjoys the property of others, for him the punishment is that he shall be punished ‘publicly’—on the public road—with such ‘modes of death,’ as ‘decapitation with the axe,’ ‘impalement,’ ‘tramling (trambling?) by elephants’ and so forth.

Others have held, on the strength of the ‘context,’ that what is said here pertains to the case of ‘Deposits’; in this sense the ‘fraudulent means’ would consist in putting off the restoration by such pretexts as—‘I do not remember where I kept the thing,’ ‘the article was kept by another person, who is not here now, he shall come to-morow’ and so forth; and the man who thus puts it off is said to ‘appropriate’ it.—(193)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 92), which adds the following notes:—‘Upadhābhiḥ,’ by fraud;—‘sahāya’ is one who helps in the misappropriation of other’s property by fraud;—‘prakāśam’, in the public square and such places;—it is quoted again at p. 316;—in Vivādacintāmaṇi (p. 39), which explains ‘upadhā’ as ‘fraud’—‘sahāya’ as ‘abettor in the fraudulent appropriation,’—and ‘vadha’ as ‘beating, imprisonment and so forth’;—and in Kṛtyakalpataru (84a).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.193-194)

[See the texts under 190-192.]

Nārada (2.3).—‘In whatever manner a man may have delivered any of his effects to another, in that same manner shall the article be restored to him. Delivery and receipt should be equal.’

Bṛhaspati (12.9).—‘A deposit must be returned to the very man who bailed it, in the very manner in which it was bailed.’