Carl Clausewitz - The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

Ignoramuses, youngsters, the aged, the afflicted, persons under intoxication, lunatics, persons suffering from hunger, thirst, or fatigue from journey, persons who have just taken more than enough of meal, persons who have confessed of their own accord (átmakásitam), and persons who are very weak,--none of these shall be subjected to torture.

Among the spies such as harlots, suppliers of water and other drinks to travellers, story-tellers, hotel-keepers providing travellers with boarding and lodging, any one who happens to be acquainted with the work similar to that of the suspected may be let off to watch his movements, as described in connection with misappropriation of sealed deposits.

Those whose guilt is believed to be true shall be subjected to torture (áptadosham karma kárayet). But not women who are carrying or who have not passed a month after delivery.

Torture of women shall be half of the prescribed standard. Or women with no exception may be subjected to the trial of cross-examination (vákyanuyogo vá).

Those of Bráhman caste and learned in the Vedas as well as asceties shall only be subjected to espionage.

Those who violate or cause to violate the above rules shall be punished with the first amercement. The same punishment shall be imposed in case of causing death to any one by torture.

There are in vogue four kinds of torture (karma):--

Six punishments (shatdandáh), seven kinds of whipping (kasa), two kinds of suspension from above (upari nibandhau), and water-tube (udakanáliká cha).

As to persons who have committed grave offences, the form of torture will be nine kinds of blows with a cane:--12 beats on each of the thighs; 28 beats with a stick of the tree (naktamála); 32 beats on each palm of the hands and on each sole of the feet; two on the knuckles, the hands being joined so as to appear like a scorpion; two kinds of suspensions, face downwards (ullambane chale); burning one of the joints of a finger after the accused has been made to drink rice gruel; heating his body for a day after be has been made to drink oil; causing him to lie on coarse green grass for a night in winter. These are the 18 kinds of torture.

The instruments of the accused such as ropes, clubs, arrows, spades, knives, etc., shall be paraded on the back of an ass.

Each day a fresh kind of the torture may be employed.

Regarding those criminals who rob in accordance with the threat previously made by them, who have made use of the stolen articles in part, who have been caught hold of in the very act or with the stolen articles, who have attempted to seize the king's treasury, or who have committed culpable crime, may, in accordance with the order of the king, be subjected once or many times to one all of the above kinds of torture.

Whatever may be the nature of the crime, no Bráhman offender shall be tortured. The face of a Bráhman convict shall be branded so as to leave a mark indicating his crime:--the sign of a dog in theft, that of a headless body in murder; that of the female part (bhaga) in rape with the wife of a teacher, and that of the flag of vintners for drinking liquor.

After having thus branded to a wound and proclaimed his crime in public, the king shall either banish a Bráhman offender or send him to the mines for life.

[Thus ends Chapter VIII, "Trial and Torture to Elicit Confession” in Book IV, “The Removal of Thorns” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the eighty-fifth chapter from the beginning.]

Table of Contents

COMMISSIONERS appointed by the Collector-general shall first check (the proceedings of) Superintendents and their subordinates.

Those who seize valuable articles or precious stones from either mines or any great manufactories shall be beheaded. Those who seize ordinary articles or necessaries of life from manufactories of articles of small value shall be punished with the first amercement. Those who seize from manufactories or from the king's granary articles of 1/16 to 1/4 a pana in value shall be fined 12 panas; articles of 1/4 to 1/2 a pana in value, 24 panas; articles 1/2 to 3/4 pana in value, 36 panas; and articles of 3/4 to 1 pana in value, 48 panas.

Those who seize articles of 1 to 2 panas in value shall be punished with the first amercement; articles of 2 to 4 panas in value with the middlemost; and articles of 4 to 8 panas in value with the highest amercement. Those who seize articles of 8 to 10 panas in value shall be condemned to death.

When any one seizes from courtyards, shops, or arsenals commodities such as raw materials, manufactured articles, etc., of half the above value, he shall also be punished as above. When any person seizes articles of ¼th of the above value from Government treasury, granaries, or offices of Superintendents, he shall be punished with twice the above fines.

It has already been laid down in connection with the king's harem that those who intimidate thieves (with a view to give them a signal to run away) shall be tortured to death.

When any person other than a Government servant steals during the day from fields, yards prepared for threshing out grains, houses, or shops commodities such as raw materials, manufactured articles, or necessaries of life, of 1/16th to 1/4th of a pana in value, he shall be fined 3 panas or paraded through the streets, his body being smeared over with cow-dung, and an earthen ware pan with blazing light tied round his loins (sarávamekhalayá). When any person steals articles of ¼ to ½ of a pana in value, he shall be fined 6 panas, or his head may be shaved, or he may be exiled (mundanam pravrajanam vá). When a person steals articles of ½ to 1/3 of a pana in value, he shall be fined 9 panas, or he may be paraded through streets, his body being bedaubed with cowdung or ashes or with an earthenware pan with blazing light tied round his waist. When a person steals articles of 1/3 to 1 pana in value, be shall be fined 12 panas, or his head may be shaved, or he may be banished. When a person steals commodities of 1 to 2 panas in value, he shall be fined 24 panas, or his head may be shaved with a piece of brick, or he may be exiled. When a person steals articles of 2 to 4 panas in value, he shall be punished with a fine of 36 panas; articles of 4 to 5 panas in value, 48 panas; articles of 5 to 10 panas in value, with the first amercement; articles of 10 to 20 panas in value, with a fine of 200 panas; articles of 20 to 30 panas in value, with a fine of 500 panas; articles of 30 to 40 panas in value, with a fine of 1,000 panas; and articles of 40 to 50 panas in value, he shall be condemned to death.

When a person seizes by force, whether during the early part of the day or night, articles of half the above values, he shall be punished with double the above fines.

When any person with weapons in hand seizes by force, whether during the day or night, articles of ¼th of the above values, he shall be punished with the same fines.

When a master of a household (kutumbádhyaksha,) a superintendent, or an independent officer (mukhyaswámi) issues or makes use of unauthorised orders or seals, he shall be punished with the first, middlemost, or highest amercement, or he may be condemned to death, or punished in any other way in proportion to the gravity of his crime.

When a judge threatens, browbeats, sends out, or unjustly silences any one of the disputants in his court, he shall first of all be punished with the first amercement. If he defames or abuses any one of them, the punishment shall be doubled. If he does not ask what ought to be asked, or asks what ought not to be asked, or leaves out what he himself has asked, or teaches, reminds, or provides any one with previous statement, he shall be punished with the middle-most amercement.