Carl Clausewitz - The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

Fording or crossing the rivers (without permission) shall be prohibited lest traitors may cross them (and escape).

When a person fords or crosses a river outside the proper place and in unusual times, he shall be punished with the first amercement.

When a man fords or crosses a river at the usual place and time without permission, he shall be fined 26¾ panas.

Fishermen, carriers of firewood, grass, flowers, and fruits, gardeners, vegetable-dealers, and herdsmen, persons pursuing suspected criminals, messengers following other messengers going in advance, servants engaged to carry things, provisions, and orders to the army, those who use their own ferries, as well as those who supply villages of marshy districts with seeds, necessaries of life, commodities and other accessary things shall be exempted (to cross rivers at any time and place).

Bráhmans, ascetics (pravrajita), children, the aged, the afflicted, royal messengers, and pregnant women shall be provided by the superintendent with free passes to cross rivers.

Foreign merchants who have often been visiting the country as well as those who are well known to local merchants shall be allowed to land in port-towns.

Any person who is abducting the wife or daughter of another, one who is carrying off the wealth of another, a suspected person, one who seems to be of perturbed appearance, one who has no baggage, one who attempts to conceal, or evade the cognisance of the valuable load in one's hand, one who has just put on a different garb, one who has removed or renounced one's usual garb, one who has just turned out an ascetic, one who pretends to be suffering from disease, one who seems to be alarmed, one who is stealthily carrying valuable things, or going on a secret mission, or carrying weapons or explosives (agniyoga), one who holds poison in one's hand, and one who has come from a long distance without a pass shall all be arrested.

A minor quadruped as well as a man carrying some load shall pay one másha.

A head-load, a load carried on shoulders (káyabhárah), a cow, and a horse shall each pay 2 máshas.

A camel and a buffalo shall each pay 4 máshas.

A small cart (laghuyána) 5 máshas; and a cart (of medium size) drawn by bulls (golingam) shall pay 6 máshas and a big cart (sakata) 7 máshas.

A head-load of merchandise ¼ másha; this explains other kinds of loads. In big rivers, ferry-fees are double the above. Villages near marshy places shall give (to the ferry-men) the prescribed amount of food-stuff and wages.

In boundaries, ferry-men shall receive the toll, carriage-cess, and road-cess. They shall also confiscate the property of the person travelling without a pass. The Superintendent of Boats shall make good the loss caused by the loss of the boat due to the heavy load, sailing in improper time or place, want of ferry-men, or lack of repair. Boats should be launched between the months of Ashádha, the first seven days being omitted, and Kártika; the evidence of a ferryman should be given and the daily income should be remitted.

[Thus ends Chapter XXVIII, “The Superintendent of Ships” in Book II, “The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the forty-ninth chapter from the beginning.]

Table of Contents

THE Superintendent of cows shall supervise (1) herds maintained for wages (vétanópagráhikam), (2) herds surrendered for a fixed amount of dairy produce (karapratikara), (3) useless and abandoned herds (bhagnotsrishtakam), (4) herds maintained for a share in dairy produce (bhágánupravishtam), (5) classes of herds (vrajaparyagram), (6) cattle that strayed (nashtam), (7) cattle that are irrecoverably lost (vinashtam), and (8) the amassed quantity of milk and clarified butter.

(1) When a cowherd, a buffalo-herdsman, a milker, a churner, and a hunter (lubdhaka) fed by wages graze milch cows (dhenu) in hundreds (satam satam)--for if they graze the herds for the profit of milk and ghi, they will starve the calves to death,--that system of rearing the cattle is termed ‘herds maintained for wages.’

(2) When a single person rears a hundred heads (rúpasatam) made up of equal numbers of each of aged cows, milch cows, pregnant cows, heifers, and calves (vatsatari) and gives (to the owner) 8 várakas of clarified butter per annum, as well as the branded skin (of dead cows if any), that system is called ‘herds surrendered for a fixed amount of dairy produce.’

(3) When those who rear a hundred heads made up of equal numbers of each of afflicted cattle, crippled cattle, cattle that cannot be milked by any one but the accustomed person, cattle that are not easily milked, and cattle that kill their own calves give in return (to the owner) a share in dairy produce, it is termed ‘useless and abandoned herd.’

(4) When under the fear of cattle-lifting enemies (parachakrátavibhayát), cattle are kept under the care of the superintendent, giving him 1/10th of the dairy produce for his protection, it is termed "herds maintained for a share in dairy produce."

(5) When the superintendent classifies cattle as calves, steers, tameable ones, draught oxen, bulls that are to be trained to yoke, bulls kept for crossing cows, cattle that are fit only for the supply of flesh, buffaloes and draught buffaloes; female calves, female steer, heifer, pregnant cows, milch cattle, barren cattle---either cows or buffaloes; calves that are a month or two old as well as those which are still younger; and when, as he ought to, he brands them all inclusive of their calves of one or two months old along with those stray cattle which have remained unclaimed in the herds for a month or two; and when he registers the branded marks, natural marks, colour and the distance from one horn to another of each of the cattle, that system is known as ‘class of herds.’

(6) When an animal is carried off by thieves or finds itself into the herds of others or strays unknown, it is called ‘lost.’

(7) When an animal is entangled in a quagmire or precipice or dies of disease or of old age, or drowned in water: or when it is killed by the fall of a tree or of river bank, or is beaten to death with a staff or stone, or is struck by lightening (ísána), or is devoured by a tiger or bitten by a cobra, or is carried off by a crocodile, or is involved in the midst of a forest fire, it is termed as “irrecoverably lost.”

Cowherds shall endeavour to keep them away from such dangers.

Whoever hurts or causes another to hurt, or steals or causes another to steal a cow, should be slain.

When a person substitutes an animal (rúpa) bearing the royal brand mark for a private one, he shall be punished with the first amercement.

When a person recovers a local cattle from thieves, he shall receive the promised reward (panitam rúpam); and when a man rescues a foreign cattle (from thieves), he shall receive half its value.

Cowherds shall apply remedies to calves or aged cows or cows suffering from diseases.

They shall graze the herds in forests which are severally allotted as pasture grounds for various seasons and from which thieves, tigers and other molesting beasts are driven away by hunters aided by their hounds.

With a view to scare out snakes and tigers and as a definite means of knowing the whereabouts of herds, sounding bells shall be attached to (the neck of) timid cattle.

Cowherds shall allow their cattle to enter into such rivers or lakes as are of equal depth all round, broad, and free from mire and crocodiles, and shall protect them from dangers under such circumstances.

Whenever an animal is caught hold of by a thief, a tiger, a snake, or a crocodile, or when it is too infirm owing to age or disease, they shall make a report of it; otherwise they shall be compelled to make good the loss.