Carl Clausewitz - The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

Whatever a man attempts to do to others by witch-craft shall be (practically) applied to the doer himself. Witch-craft merely to arouse love in an indifferent wife, in a maiden by her lover, or in a wife by her husband is no offence. But when it is injurious to others, the doer shall be punished with the middle most amercement.

When a man performs witch-craft to win the sister of his own father or mother, the wife of a maternal uncle or of a preceptor, his own daughter-in-law, daughter, or sister, he shall have his limb cut off and also put to death, ,while any woman who yields herself to such an offender shall also, receive similar punishment. Any woman who yields herself to a slave, a servant, or a hired labourer shall be similarly punished.

A Kshatriya who commits adultery with an unguarded Bráhman woman shall be punished with the highest amercement; a Vaisya doing the same shall be deprived of the whole of his property; and a Súdra shall be burnt alive wound round in mats.

Whoever commits adultery with the queen of the land shall be burnt alive in a vessel (kumbhílpákah.)

A man who commits adultery with a woman of low caste shall be banished with prescribed mark branded on his fore-head, or shall be degraded to the same caste.

A Súdra or a svapáka who commits adultery with a woman of low caste shall be put to death, while the woman shall have her ears and nose cut off.

Adultery with a nun (pravrajitá) shall be punishable with a fine of 24 panas while the nun who submits herself shall also pay a similar fine.

A man who forces his connection with a harlot shall be fined 12 panas.

When many persons perform witch-craft towards a single woman, each of them shall be punished with a fine of 24 panas.

When a man has connection with a woman against the order of nature (a-yonau), he shall be punished with the first amercement.

A man having sexual intercourse with another man shall also pay the first amercement.

When a senseless man has sexual intercourse with beasts, he shall be fined 12 panas; when he comits the same act with idols (representatives) of goddesses (daivatapratimá), he shall be fined twice as much.

When the king punishes an innocent man, he shall throw into water dedicating to god Varuna a fine equal to thirty times the unjust imposition; and this amount shall afterwards be distributed among the Bráhmans.

By this act, the king will be free from the sin of unjust imposition; for king Varuna is the ruler of sinners among men.

[Thus ends Chapter XIII, “Punishment for violating justice” in Book IV, “The Removal of Thorns” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the ninetieth chapter from the beginning. With this ends the fourth Book, “The removal of of thorns” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya.]

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

MEASURES necessary to remove the thorns of public peace both in fortified cities and country parts have been dealt with. We shall now proceed to treat of measures to suppress treason against the king and his kingdom.

With regard to those chiefs who, though living by service under the king, are inimically disposed towards him, or have taken the side of his enemy, a spy with secret mission or one in the guise of an ascetic and devoted to the king's cause shall set to work as described before; or a spy trained in the art of sowing the seeds of dissension may set to work, as will be described in connection with the ‘Invasion of an enemy's villages.’

The king in the interests of righteousness may inflict punishment in secret on those courtiers or confederacy of chiefs who are dangerous to the safety of the kingdom and who cannot be put down in open daylight.

A spy may instigate the brother of a seditious minister and with necessary inducements, take him to the king for an interview. The king, having conferred upon him the title to possess and enjoy the property of his seditious brother, may cause him to attack his brother; and when he murders his brother with a weapon or with poison, he shall be put to death in the same spot under the plea that he is a parricide.

The same measure will explain the proceedings to be taken against a seditious Pârasava (one who is begotten by a Bráhman on Sûdra wife), and a seditious son of a woman-servant.

Or instigated by a spy, the brother of a seditious minister may put forward his claim for inheritance. While the claimant is lying at night at the door of the house of the seditious minister or elsewhere, a fiery spy (tîshna) may murder him and declare "Alas! the claimant for inheritance is thus murdered (by his brother)." Then taking the side of the injured party, the king may punish the other (the seditious minister).

Spies in the presence of a seditious minister may threaten to beat his brother claiming inheritance. Then "while the claimant is lying at the door of, etc." .............. as before.

The same proceedings will explain the quarrel fraudulently caused to crop up between any two seditious ministers, in whose family a son or a father has had sexual intercourse with a daughter-in-law, or a brother with the wife of another brother.

A spy may flatter to the vanity of a seditious minister's son, of gentle manners and dignified conduct by telling him "Though thou art the king's son, thou art kept here in fear of enemies." The king may secretly honour this deluded person and tell him that "apprehending danger from the minister, I have put off thy installation, though thou hast attained the age of heir apparent." Then the spy may instigate him to murder the minister. The task being accomplished, he, too, may be put to death in the same spot under the plea that he is a parricide.

A mendicant woman, having captivated the wife of a seditious minister by administering such medicines as excite the feelings of love, may through that wife contrive to poison the minister.

Failing these measures, the king may send a seditious minister with an army of inefficient soldiers and fiery spies to put down a rebellious wild tribe or a village, or to set up a new superintendent of countries or of boundaries in a locality bordering upon a wilderness, or to bring under control a highly-rebellious city, or to fetch a caravan bringing in the tribute due to the king from a neighbouring country. In an affray (that ensues in consequence of the above mission) either by day or at night, the fiery spies, or spies under the guise of robbers (pratirodhaka) may murder the minister and declare that he was killed in the battle.

While marching against an enemy or being engaged in sports, the king may send for his seditious ministers for an interview. While leading the ministers to the king, fiery spies with concealed weapons shall, in the middle enclosure of the king's pavilion, offer themselves to be searched for admittance into the interior, and, when caught, with their weapons by the door-keepers, declare themselves to be the accomplices of the seditious ministers. Having made this affair known to the public, the door-keepers shall put the ministers to death, and in the place of the fiery spies, some others are to be hanged.

While engaged in sports outside the city, the king may honour his seditious ministers with accommodation close to his own. A woman of bad character under the guise of the queen may be caught in the apartment of these ministers and steps may be taken against them as before.

A sauce-maker or a sweetmeat-maker may request of a seditious minister some sauce and sweetmeat by flattering him--"thou alone art worthy of such things." Having mixed those two things and half a cup of water with poison, he may substitute those things in the luncheon (of the king) outside the city. Having made this event known to the public, the king may put them (the minister and the cook) to death under the plea that they are poisoners.