Carl Clausewitz - The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

and without failing to notice equitable distinctions among offenders, whether belonging to royal family or to the common people, shall the commissioner determine the propriety of imposing the first, middlemost, or highest amercements.

[Thus ends Chapter X, "Fines in lieu of mutilation of limbs" in Book IV, “The Removal of Thorns” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the eighty-seventh chapter from the. beginning.]

Table of Contents

WHEN a man murders another in a quarrel, he shall be tortured to death. When a person wounded in a fight dies within seven nights, he who caused the wound shall be put to instantaneous death (suddhavadhah). If the wounded man dies within a fortnight, the offender shall be punished with the highest amercement. If the wounded man dies within a month, the offender shall be compelled to pay not only a fine of 500 panas, but also an adequate compensation (to the bereaved).

When a man hurts another with a weapon, he shall pay the highest amercement; when he does so under intoxication, his hand shall be cut off; and when he causes instantaneous death, be shall be put to death.

When a person causes abortion in pregnancy by striking, or with medicine, or by annoyance, the highest, middlemost, and first amercements shall be imposed respectively.

Those who cause violent death either to men or women, or those who are in the habit of often going to meet prostitutes (abhisáraka), those who inflict unjust punishment upon others, those who spread false or contemptuous rumours, who assault or obstruct travellers on their way, who commit house-breaking, or who steal or cause hurt to royal elephants, horses, or carriages shall be hanged.

Whoever burns or carries away the corpses of the above offenders shall meet with similar punishment or pay the highest amercement.

When a person supplies murderers or thieves with food, dress, any requisites, fire, information, any plan, or assistance in any way, he shall be punished with the highest amercement. When he does so under ignorance, he shall be censured.

Sons or wives of murderers or of thieves shall, if they are found not in concert, be acquitted; but they shall be seized if found to have been in concert.

Any person who aims at the kingdom, who forces entrance into the king's harem, who instigates wild tribes or enemies (against the king), or who creates disaffection in forts, country parts, or in the army shall be burnt alive from head to foot.

If a Bráhman does similar acts, he shall be drowned.

Any person who murders his father, mother, son, brother, teacher, or an ascetic, shall be put to death by burning both his head and skin; if he insults any of the above persons, his tongue shall be cut off; if he bites any limb of these persons, be shall be deprived of the corresponding limb.

When a man wantonly murders another, or steals a herd of cattle, he shall be beheaded.

A herd of cattle shall be considered to consist of not more than ten heads.

When a person breaks the dam of a tank full of water, he shall be drowned in the very tank; of a tank without water, he shall be punished with the highest amercement; and of a tank which is in ruins owing to neglect, he shall be punished with the middle-most amercement.

Any man who poisons another and any woman who murders a man shall be drowned.

Any woman who murders her husband, preceptor, or offspring, sets fire to another's property, poisons a man or cuts off any of the bodily joints of another shall be torn off by bulls, no matter whether or not she is big with a child, or has not passed a month after giving birth to a child.

Any person who sets fire to pasture lands, fields, yards prepared for threshing out grains, houses, forests, of timber or of elephants shall be thrown into fire.

Any person who insults the king, betrays the king's council, makes evil attempts (against the king), or disregards the sanctity of the kitchens of Bráhmans shall have his tongue cut off.

When a man other than a soldier steals weapons or armour, he shall be shot down by arrows; if he is a soldier, he shall pay the highest amercement.

He who castrates a man shall have his generative organ cut off.

He who hurts the tongue or nose of another shall have his fingers cut off.

Such painful punishments (klesadanda) as the above have been laid down in the Śástras of great sages; but it has been declared as just to put to simple death those offenders who have not been cruel.

[Thus ends Chapter XI, "Death with or without torture" in Book IV, "The Removal of Thorns” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the eighty-eighth chapter from the beginning.]

Table of Contents

HE who defiles a maiden of equal caste before she has reached her maturity shall have his hand cut off or pay a fine of 400 panas; if the maiden dies in consequence, the offender shall be put to death.

He who defiles a maiden who has attained maturity shall have his middle finger cut off or pay a fine of 200 panas, besides giving an adequate compensation to her father.

No man shall have sexual intercourse with any woman against her will.

He who defiles a willing maiden shall pay a fine of 54 panas, while the maiden herself shall pay a fine of half the amount.

When a man impersonates another man who has already paid the nuptial fee to a woman (parasulkopadháyám), he shall have his hand cut off or pay a fine of 400 panas, besides making good the nuptial fee.

No man who has connection with a maiden that has passed seven menses and has not yet succeeded in marrying her, though she has been betrothed to him, shall either be guilty or pay any compensation to her father; for her father has lost his authority over her in consequence of having deprived her so long of the result of her menses.

It is no offence for a man of equal caste and rank to have connection with a maiden who has been unmarried three years after her first menses. Nor is it an offence for a man, even of different caste, to have connection with a maiden who has spent more than three years after her first menses and has no jewellery on her person; for taking possession of paternal property (under such circumstances) shall be regarded as theft.

Any person who, while pretending to secure a bride to a particular person, ultimately obtains her for a third person shall be fined 200 panas.

No man shall have sexual intercourse with any woman against her will.

If a person substitutes in marriage another maiden for the one he has before shown, he shall, if the substitute is of the same rank, be fined 100 panas, and 200 panas if she is of lower rank. The substituted maiden shall be fined 54 panas, while the offender shall also be compelled to return both the nuptial fee and the amount of expenditure (incurred by the bridegroom).

When a man refuses to live in marriage a particular maiden as agreed upon, he shall pay double the above fine.

When a man substitutes in marriage a maiden of different blood or is found to have bestowed false praises (on her quality), he shall not only pay a fine of 200 panas and return the nuptial fee, but also make good the expenditure.

No man shall have sexual intercourse with any woman against her will.

When a woman being desirous of intercourse, yields herself to a man of the same caste and rank, she shall be fined 12 panas, while any other woman who is an abettor in the case shall be fined twice as much. Any woman who abets a man in having intercourse with a maiden against her will shall not only pay a fine of 100 panas, but also please the maiden providing her with an adequate nuptial fee.

A woman who, of her own accord, yields herself to a man shall be a slave to the king.