Carl Clausewitz - The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

When an animal dies a natural death, they shall surrender the skin with the brand mark, if it is a cow or a buffalo; the skin together with the ear (karnalakshanam) if it is a goat or sheep; the tail with the skin containing the brand mark, if it is an ass or a camel; the skin, if it is a young one; besides the above, (they shall also restore) the fat (vasti), bile, marrow (snáyu), teeth, hoofs, horns, and bones.

They (the cowherds) may sell either fresh flesh or dried flesh.

They shall give buttermilk as drink to dogs and hogs, and reserve a little (buttermilk) in a bronze vessel to prepare their own dish: they may also make use of coagulated milk or cheese (kíláta) to render their oilcakes relishing (ghánapinyáka-kledartha).

He who sells his cow (from among the herds) shall pay (to the king) ¼th rúpa (value of the cow).

During the rainy, autumnal, and the first part of winter (hemanta) seasons, they shall milk the cattle both the times (morning and evening); and during the latter part of winter and the whole of the spring and summer seasons, they shall milk only once (i.e., only in the morning). The cowherd who milks a cow a second time during these seasons shall have his thumb cut off.

If he allows the time of milking to lapse, he shall forfeit the profit thereof (i.e., the milk).

The same rule shall hold good in case of negligence of the opportune moment for putting a string through the nose of a bull and other animals, and for taming or training them to the yoke.

One drona of a cow's milk will, when churned, yield one prastha of butter; the same quantity of a buffalo's milk will yield 1/7th prastha more; and the same quantity of milk of goats and sheep will produce ½ prastha more.

In all kinds of milk, the exact quantity of butter shall be ascertained by churning; for increase in the supply of milk and butter depends on the nature of the soil and the quantity and quality of fodder and water.

When a person causes a bull attached to a herd to fight with another bull, he shall be punished with the first amercement; when a bull is injured (under such circumstances), he shall be punished with the highest amercement.

Cattle shall be grouped in herds of ten each of similar colour, while they are being grazed.

According to the protective strength of the cowherds the capacity of the cattle to go far and wide to graze, cowherds shall take their cattle either far or near.

Once in six months, sheep and other animals shall be shorn of their wool.

The same rules shall apply to herds of horses, asses, camels, and hogs.

For bulls which are provided with nose-rings, and which equal horses in speed and in carrying loads, half a bhára of meadow grass (yavasa), twice the above quantity of ordinary grass (trina), one tulá (100 palas) of oil cakes, 10 ádhakas of bran, 5 palas of salt (mukhalavanam), one kudumba of oil for rubbing over the nose (nasya), 1 prastha of drink (pána), one tulá of flesh, 1 ádhaka of curis, 1 drona of barley or of cooked másha (Phraseolus Radiatus), 1 drona of milk; or half an ádhaka of surá (liquor), 1 prastha of oil or ghi (sneha) 10 palas of sugar or jaggery, 1 pala of the fruit of sringibera (ginger) may be substituted for milk (pratipána).

The same commodities less by one quarter each will form the diet for mules, cows, and asses; twice the quantity of the above things for buffaloes and camels.

Draught oxen and cows, supplying milk (payah), shall be provided with subsistence in proportion to the duration of time the oxen are kept at work, and the quantity of milk which the cows supply.

All cattle shall be supplied with abundance of fodder and water.

Thus the manner of rearing herds of cattle has been dealt with.

A herd of 100 heads of asses and mules shall contain 5 male animals; that of goats and sheep ten; and a herd of ten heads of either cows or buffaloes shall contain four male animals.

[Thus ends Chapter XXIX, "The Superintendent of Cows” in Book II, “The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the fiftieth chapter from the beginning.]

Table of Contents

THE Superintendent of Horses shall register the breed, age, colour, marks, group or classes, and the native place of horses, and classify as (1) those that are kept in sale-house for sale (panyágárikam), (2) those that are recently purchased (krayopágatam), (3) those that have been captured in wars (áhavalabdham), (4) those that are of local breed (ájátam), (5) those that are sent thither for help (sáháyyakágatam), (6) those that are mortgaged (panasthitam), and (7) those that are temporarily kept in stables (yávatkálikam).

He shall make a report (to the king) of such animals as are inauspicious, crippled, or diseased.

Every horseman shall know how to make an economic use of whatever he has received from the king's treasury and storehouse.

The superintendent shall have a stable constructed as spacious as required by the number of horses to be kept therein twice as broad as the length of a horse, with four doors facing the four quarters, with its central floor suited for the rolling of horses, with projected front provided with wooden seats at the entrance, and containing monkeys, peacocks, red spotted deer (prishata), mangoose, partridges (chakora), parrots, and maina birds (sárika); the room for every horse shall be four times as broad or long as the length of a horse, with its central floor paved with smoothened wooden planks, with separate compartments for fodder (khádanakoshthakam), with passages for the removal of urine and dung, and with a door facing either the north or the east. The distinction of quarters (digvibhága) may be made as a matter of fact or relatively to the situation of the building.

Steeds, stallions and colts shall be separately kept.

A steed that has just given birth to a colt shall be provided for the first three days with a drink of 1 prastha of clarified butter; afterwards it shall be fed with a prastha of flour (saktu) and made to drink oil mixed with medicine for ten nights; after that time, it shall have cooked grains, meadow grass, and other things suited to the season of the day.

A colt, ten days old, shall be given a kudumba of flour mixed with ¼th kudumba of clarified butter, and 1 prastha of milk till it becomes six months old; then the above rations shall be increased half as much during each succeeding month, with the addition of 1 prastha of barley till it becomes three years old, then one drona of barley till it grows four years old; at the age of four or five, it attains its full development and becomes serviceable.

The face (mukha) of the best horse measures 32 angulas; its length is 5 times its face; its shank is 20 angulas; and its height is 4 times its shank.

Horses of medium and lower sizes fall short of the above measurement by two and three angulas respectively.

The circumference (parínáha) of the best horse measures 100 angulas, and horses of medium and lower sizes fall short of the above measurement by five parts (panchabhágávaram).

For the best horse (the diet shall be) 2 dronas of any one of the grains, rice (sáli, vríhi,) barley, panic seeds (priyangu) soaked or cooked, cooked mudga (Phraseolus Munga) or másha (Phraseolus Radiatus); one prastha of oil, 5 palas of salt, 50 palas of flesh, 1 ádhaka of broth (rasa) or 2 ádhakas of curd, 5 palas of sugar (kshára), to make their diet relishing, 1 prastha of súrá, liquor, or 2 prasthas of milk.

The same quantity of drink shall be specially given to those horses which are tired of long journey or of carrying loads.

One prastha of oil for giving enema (anuvásana), 1 kudumba of oil for rubbing over the nose, 1,000 palas of meadow grass, twice as much of ordinary grass (trina); and hay-stalk or grass shall be spread over an area of 6 aratnis.