Verse 8.319

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

यस्तु रज्जुं घटं कूपाद्द् हरेद् भिन्द्याच्च यः प्रपाम् ।
स दण्डं प्राप्नुयान् माषं तच्च तस्मिन् समाहरेत् ॥ ३१९ ॥

yastu rajjuṃ ghaṭaṃ kūpādd hared bhindyācca yaḥ prapām |
sa daṇḍaṃ prāpnuyān māṣaṃ tacca tasmin samāharet || 319 ||

When one steals the rope or the water-pot from the well, or damages a water-drinking establishment, he should be punished with a fine of one ‘māṣa,’ and should restore the article to the place.—(319)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

A place where people drink water is called ‘prapā,’ ‘water-drinking establishment,’ the place where water is stored after having been drawn from a reservoir.

The exact nature of the substance is not stated—of what substance the fine of a ‘māṣa’ shall consist. It should he regarded as being copper or silver.

The article—rope and the rest—ho shall restore ‘to the place’ and not to the king.—(319)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Māṣam’—‘Of gold’ (Kullūka);—‘the exact metal has not been mentioned; it has to be determined on the merits of each case, according as the institution damaged happens to he in a desert or in a country with plentiful water-supply and so forth’ (Medhātithi, whom Buhler has misrepresented).

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 328), which adds the following notes:—The meaning is that—‘that’, the damaged article,—in the shape of the rope or the jar—he shall restore to the well. The Pārijata, in view of the later pronoun ‘tat’ has read ‘rājjughaṭam’ and has explained it as a ‘collective copulative compound’;—and in Vivādacintāmaṇi (p. 141), which reads ‘rajjughaṭam’ and explains it as ‘the rope or the jar’, and explains the rule as that ‘one who steals the rope or the jar should replace it, and he who damages the drinking-booth should be fined a Māṣa.’