Kautilya's Arthashastra
Translated by R. Shamasastry - 1915
Kautilya's Arthashastra
Book II: The Duties of Government Superintendents
Translated by R. Shamasastry
Contents:
Formation of villages; division of land; construction of forts; buildings within the fort; the duty of the chamberlain; the business of collection of revenue by the collector-general; the business of keeping up accounts in the office of accountants; detection of what is embezzled by government servants out of state-revenue; examination of the conduct of Government servants; the procedure of forming royal writs; the superintendent of the treasury; examination of gems that are to be entered into the treasury; conducting mining operations and manufacture; the superintendent of gold; the duties of the state goldsmith in the high road; the superintendent of store-house; the superintendent of commerce; the superintendent of forest produce; the superintendent of the armoury; the superintendent of weights and measures; measurement of space and time; the superintendent of tolls; the superintendent of weaving; the superintendent of agriculture; the superintendent of liquor; the superintendent of slaughter-house; the superintendent of prostitutes; the superintendent of ships; the superintendent of cows; the superintendent of horses; the superintendent of elephants; the superintendent of chariots; the superintendent of infantry; the duty of the commander- in-chief , the superintendent of passports; the superintendent of pasture lands; the duty of revenue collectors; spies in the guise of householders, merchants, and ascetics; the duty of a city superintendent.
Formation of villages; division of land; construction of forts; buildings within the fort; the duty of the chamberlain; the business of collection of revenue by the collector-general; the business of keeping up accounts in the office of accountants; detection of what is embezzled by government servants out of state-revenue; examination of the conduct of Government servants; the procedure of forming royal writs; the superintendent of the treasury; examination of gems that are to be entered into the treasury; conducting mining operations and manufacture; the superintendent of gold; the duties of the state goldsmith in the high road; the superintendent of store-house; the superintendent of commerce; the superintendent of forest produce; the superintendent of the armoury; the superintendent of weights and measures; measurement of space and time; the superintendent of tolls; the superintendent of weaving; the superintendent of agriculture; the superintendent of liquor; the superintendent of slaughter-house; the superintendent of prostitutes; the superintendent of ships; the superintendent of cows; the superintendent of horses; the superintendent of elephants; the superintendent of chariots; the superintendent of infantry; the duty of the commander- in-chief , the superintendent of passports; the superintendent of pasture lands; the duty of revenue collectors; spies in the guise of householders, merchants, and ascetics; the duty of a city superintendent.
CHAPTER I. FORMATION OF VILLAGES.
· EITHER by inducing foreigners to immigrate (paradesapraváhanena) or by causing the thickly-populated centres of his own kingdom to send forth the excessive population (svadésábhishyandavámanéna vá), the king may construct villages either on new sites or on old ruins (bhútapúrvama vá).
· Villages consisting each of not less than a hundred families and of not more than five-hundred families of agricultural people of súdra caste, with boundaries extending as far as a krósa (2250 yds.) or two, and capable of protecting each other shall be formed. Boundaries shall be denoted by a river, a mountain, forests, bulbous plants (grishti), caves, artificial buildings (sétubandha), or by trees such as sálmali (silk cotton tree), samí (Acacia Suma), and kshíravriksha (milky trees).
There shall be set up a stháníya (a fortress of that name) in the centre of eight-hundred villages, a drónamukha in the centre of four-hundred villages, a khárvátika in the centre of two-hundred villages and sangrahana in the midst of a collection of ten villages.
There shall be set up a stháníya (a fortress of that name) in the centre of eight-hundred villages, a drónamukha in the centre of four-hundred villages, a khárvátika in the centre of two-hundred villages and sangrahana in the midst of a collection of ten villages.
· There shall be constructed in the extremities of the kingdom forts manned by boundary-guards (antapála) whose duty shall be to guard the entrances into the kingdom. The interior of the kingdom shall be watched by trap-keepers (vágurika), archers (sábara), hunters (pulinda), chandálas, and wild tribes (aranyachára).
· Those who perform sacrifices (ritvik), spiritual guides, priests, and those learned in the Vedas shall be granted Brahmadaya lands yielding sufficient produce and exempted from taxes and fines (adandkaráni).
· Superintendents, Accountants, Gopas, Sthánikas, Veterinary Surgeons (Aníkastha), physicians, horse-trainers, and messengers shall also be endowed with lands which they shall have no right to alienate by sale or mortgage.
· Lands prepared for cultivation shall be given to tax- payers (karada) only for life (ekapurushikáni).
· Unprepared lands shall not be taken away from those who are preparing them for cultivation.
· Lands may be confiscated from those who do not cultivate them; and given to others; or they may be cultivated by village labourers (grámabhritaka) and traders (vaidehaka), lest those owners who do not properly cultivate them might pay less (to the government). If cultivators pay their taxes easily, they may be favourably supplied with grains, cattle, and money.
· The king shall bestow on cultivators only such favour and remission (anugrahaparihárau) as will tend to swell the treasury, and shall avoid such as will deplete it.
· A king with depleted treasury will eat into the very vitality of both citizens and country people. Either on the occasion of opening new settlements or on any other emergent occasions, remission of taxes shall be made.
· He shall regard with fatherly kindness those who have passed the period of remission of taxes.
· He shall carry on mining operations and manufactures, exploit timber and elephant forests, offer facilities for cattlebreeding and commerce, construct roads for traffic both by land and water, and set up market towns (panyapattana).
· He shall also construct reservoirs (sétu) filled with water either perennial or drawn from some other source. Or he may provide with sites, roads, timber, and other necessary things those who construct reservoirs of their own accord. Likewise in the construction of places of pilgrimage (punyasthána) and of groves.
· Whoever stays away from any kind of cooperative construction (sambhúya setubhandhát) shall send his servants and bullocks to carry on his work, shall have a share in the expenditure, but shall have no claim to the profit.
· The king shall exercise his right of ownership (swámyam) with regard to fishing, ferrying and trading in vegetables (haritapanya) in reservoirs or lakes (sétushu).
· Those who do not heed the claims of their slaves (dása), hirelings (áhitaka), and relatives shall be taught their duty.
· The king shall provide the orphans, (bála), the aged, the infirm, the afflicted, and the helpless with maintenance. He shall also provide subsistence to helpless women when they are carrying and also to the children they give birth to.
· Elders among the villagers shall improve the property of bereaved minors till the latter attain their age; so also the property of Gods.
· When a capable person other than an apostate (patita) or mother neglects to maintain his or her child, wife, mother, father, minor brothers, sisters, or widowed girls (kanyá vidhaváscha), he or she shall be punished with a fine of twelve panas.
· When, without making provision for the maintenance of his wife and sons, any person embraces ascetism, he shall be punished with the first amercement; likewise any person who converts a woman to ascetism (pravrájayatah).
· Whoever has passed the age of copulation may become an ascetic after distributing the properties of his own acquisition (among his sons); otherwise, he will be punished.
· No ascetic other than a vánaprastha (forest-hermit), no company other than the one of local birth (sajátádanyassanghah), and no guilds of any kind other than local cooperative guilds (sámuttháyiká- danyassamayánubandhah) shall find entrance into the villages of the kingdom. Nor shall there be in villages buildings (sáláh) intended for sports and plays. Nor, in view of procuring money, free labour, commodities, grains, and liquids in plenty, shall actors, dancers, singers, drummers, buffoons (vágjívana), and bards (kusílava) make any disturbance to the work of the villagers; for helpless villagers are always dependent and bent upon their fields.
· The king shall avoid taking possession of any country which is liable to the inroads of enemies and wild tribes and which is harassed by frequent visitations of famine and pestilence. He shall also keep away from expensive sports.
· He shall protect agriculture from the molestation of oppressive fines, free labour, and taxes (dandavishtikarábádhaih); herds of cattle from thieves, tigers, poisonous creatures and cattle-disease.
· He shall not only clear roads of traffic from the molestations of courtiers (vallabha), of workmen (kármika), of robbers, and of boundary-guards, but also keep them from being destroyed by herds of cattle.
· Thus the king shall not only keep in good repair timber and elephant forests, buildings, and mines created in the past, but also set up new ones.
[Thus ends Chapter I, "Formation of Villages” in Book II, “The Duties of Government Superintendents,” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of twenty-second chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER II. DIVISION OF LAND.
· THE King shall make provision for pasture grounds on uncultivable tracts.
· Bráhmans shall be provided with forests for sóma plantation, for religious learning, and for the performance of penance, such forests being rendered safe from the dangers from animate or inanimate objects, and being named after the tribal name (gótra) of the Bráhmans resident therein.
· A forest as extensive as the above, provided with only one entrance rendered inaccessible by the construction of ditches all round, with plantations of delicious fruit trees, bushes, bowers, and thornless trees, with an expansive lake of water full of harmless animals, and with tigers (vyála), beasts of prey (márgáyuka), male and female elephants, young elephants, and bisons—all deprived of their claws and teeth—shall be formed for the king's sports.
· On the extreme limit of the country or in any other suitable locality, another game-forest with game-beasts; open to all, shall also be made. In view of procuring all kinds of forest-produce described elsewhere, one or several forests shall be specially reserved.
· Manufactories to prepare commodities from forest produce shall also be set up.
· Wild tracts shall be separated from timber-forests. In the extreme limit of the country, elephant forests, separated from wild tracts, shall be formed.
· The superintendent of forests with his retinue of forest guards shall not only maintain the up-keep of the forests, but also acquaint himself with all passages for entrance into, or exit from such of them as are mountainous or boggy or contain rivers or lakes.
· Whoever kills an elephant shall be put to death.
· Whoever brings in the pair of tusks of an elephant, dead from natural causes, shall receive a reward of four-and-a-half panas.
· Guards of elephant forests, assisted by those who rear elephants, those who enchain the legs of elephants, those who guard the boundaries, those who live in forests, as well as by those who nurse elephants, shall, with the help of five or seven female elephants to help in tethering wild ones, trace the whereabouts of herds of elephants by following the course of urine and dungs left by elephants and along forest-tracts covered over with branches of Bhallátaki (Semicarpus Anacardium), and by observing the spots where elephants slept or sat before or left dungs, or where they had just destroyed the banks of rivers or lakes. They shall also precisely ascertain whether any mark is due to the movements of elephants in herds, of an elephant roaming single, of a stray elephant, of a leader of herds, of a tusker, of a rogue elephant, of an elephant in rut, of a young elephant, or of an elephant that has escaped from the cage.
· Experts in catching elephants shall follow the instructions given to them by the elephant doctor (aníkastha) and catch such elephants as are possessed of auspicious characteristics and good character.
· The victory of kings (in battles) depends mainly upon elephants; for elephants, being of large bodily frame, are capable not only to destroy the arrayed army of an enemy, his fortifications, and encampments, but also to undertake works that are dangerous to life.
- Elephants bred in countries, such as Kálinga, Anga, Karúsa, and the East are the best; those of the Dasárna and western countries are of middle quality; and those of Sauráshtra and Panchajana countries are of low quality. The might and energy of all can, however, be improved by suitable training.
[Thus ends Chapter II, “Division of Land” in Book II, “The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of twenty-third chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER III. CONSTRUCTION OF FORTS
· ON all the four quarters of the boundaries of the kingdom, defensive fortifications against an enemy in war shall be constructed on grounds best fitted for the purpose: a water-fortification (audaka) such as an island in the midst of a river, or a plain surrounded by low ground; a mountainous fortification (párvata) such as a rocky tract or a cave; a desert (dhánvana) such as a wild tract devoid of water and overgrown with thicket growing in barren soil; or a forest fortification (vanadurga) full of wagtail (khajana), water and thickets.
· Of these, water and mountain fortifications are best suited to defend populous centres; and desert and forest fortifications are habitations in wilderness (atavísthánam).
· Or with ready preparations for flight the king may have his fortified capital (stháníya) as the seat of his sovereignty (samudayásthánam) in the centre of his kingdom: in a locality naturally best fitted for the purpose, such as the bank of the confluence of rivers, a deep pool of perennial water, or of a lake or tank, a fort, circular, rectangular, or square in form, surrounded with an artificial canal of water, and connected with both land and water paths (may be constructed).
· Round this fort, three ditches with an intermediate space of one danda (6 ft.) from each other, fourteen, twelve and ten dandas respectively in width, with depth less by one quarter or by one-half of their width, square at their bottom and one-third as wide as at their top, with sides built of stones or bricks, filled with perennial flowing water or with water drawn from some other source, and possessing crocodiles and lotus plants shall be constructed.
· At a distance of four dandas (24 ft.) from the (innermost) ditch, a rampart six dandas high and twice as much broad shall be erected by heaping mud upwards and by making it square at the bottom, oval at the centre pressed by the trampling of elephants and bulls, and planted with thorny and poisonous plants in bushes. Gaps in the rampart shall be filled up with fresh earth.
· Above the rampart, parapets in odd or even numbers and with an intermediate, space of from 12 to 24 hastas from each other shall be built of bricks and raised to a height of twice their breadth.
· The passage for chariots shall be made of trunks of palm trees or of broad and thick slabs of stones with spheres like the head of a monkey carved on their surface; but never of wood as fire finds a happy abode in it.
· Towers, square throughout and with moveable staircase or ladder equal to its height, shall also be constructed.
· In the intermediate space measuring thirty dandas between two towers, there shall be formed a broad street in two compartments covered over with a roof and two-and- half times as long as it is broad.
· Between the tower and the broad street there shall be constructed an Indrakósa which is made up of covering pieces of wooden planks affording seats for three archers.
· There shall also be made a road for Gods which shall measure two hastas inside (the towers ?), four times as much by the sides, and eight hastas along the parapet.
· Paths (chárya, to ascend the parapet ?) as broad as a danda (6 ft.) or two shall also be made.
· In an unassailable part (of the rampart), a passage for flight (pradhávitikám), and a door for exit (nishkuradwáram) shall be made.
· Outside the rampart, passages for movements shall be closed by forming obstructions such as a knee-breaker (jánubhanjaní), a trident, mounds of earth, pits, wreaths of thorns, instruments made like the tail of a snake, palm leaf, triangle, and of dog's teeth, rods, ditches filled with thorns and covered with sand, frying pans and water-pools.
· Having made on both sides of the rampart a circular hole of a danda-and-a-half in diametre, an entrance gate (to the fort) one-sixth as broad as the width of the street shall be fixed.
· A square (chaturásra) is formed by successive addition of one danda up to eight dandas commencing from five, or in the proportion, one-sixth of the length up to one-eighth.
· The rise in level (talotsedhah) shall be made by successive addition of one hasta up to 18 hastas commencing from 15 hastas.
· In fixing a pillar, six parts are to form its height, on the floor, twice as much (12 parts) to be entered into the ground, and one-fourth for its capital.
· Of the first floor, five parts (are to be taken) for the formation of a hall (sálá), a well, and a boundary-house; two-tenths of it for the formation of two platforms opposite to each other (pratimanchau); an upper storey twice as high as its width; carvings of images; an upper-most storey, half or three-fourths as broad as the first floor; side walls built of bricks; on the left side, a staircase circumambulating from left to right; on the right, a secret staircase hidden in the wall; a top-support of ornamental arches (toranasirah) projecting as far as two hastas; two door-panels, (each) occupying three-fourths of the space; two and two cross-bars (parigha, to fasten the door); an iron-bolt (indrakila) as long as an aratni (24 angulas); a boundary gate (ánidváram) five hastas in width; four beams to shut the door against elephants; and turrets (hastinakha) (outside the rampart) raised up to the height of the face of a man, removable or irremovable, or made of earth in places devoid of water.
· A turret above the gate and starting from the top of the parapet shall be constructed, its front resembling an alligator up to three-fourths of its height.
· In the centre of the parapets, there shall be constructed a deep lotus pool; a rectangular building of four compartments, one within the other; an abode of the Goddess Kumiri (Kumárípuram), having its external area one-and-a-half times as broad as that of its innermost room; a circular building with an arch way; and in accordance with available space and materials, there shall also be constructed canals (kulyá) to hold weapons and three times as long as broad.
· In those canals, there shall be collected stones, spades (kuddála), axes (kuthári), varieties of staffs, cudgel (musrinthi), hammers (mudgara), clubs, discus, machines (yantra), and such weapons as can destroy a hundred persons at once (sataghni), together with spears, tridents, bamboo-sticks with pointed edges made of iron, camel-necks, explosives (agnisamyógas), and whatever else can be devised and formed from available materials.
[Thus ends Chapter III, "Construction of Forts,” in Book II, “The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of twenty-fourth chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER IV. BUILDINGS WITHIN THE FORT.
· DEMARCATION of the ground inside the fort shall be made first by opening three royal roads from west to east and three from south to north.
· The fort shall contain twelve gates, provided with both a land and water-way kept secret.
· Chariot-roads, royal roads, and roads leading to drónamukha, stháníya, country parts, and pasture grounds shall each be four dandas (24 ft.) in width.
· Roads leading to sayóníya (?), military stations (vyúha), burial or cremation grounds, and to villages shall be eight dandas in width.
· Roads to gardens, groves, and forests shall be four dandas.
· Roads leading to elephant forests shall be two dandas.
· Roads for chariots shall be five aratnis (7½ ft.). Roads for cattle shall measure four aratnis; and roads for minor quadrupeds and men two aratnis.
· Royal buildings shall be constructed on strong grounds.
· In the midst of the houses of the people of all the four castes and to the north from the centre of the ground inside the fort, the king’s palace, facing either the north or the east shall, as described elsewhere (Chapter XX, Book I), be constructed occupying one-ninth of the whole site inside the fort.
· Royal teachers, priests, sacrificial place, water-reservoir and ministers shall occupy sites east by north to the palace.
· Royal kitchen, elephant stables, and the store-house shall be situated on sites east by south.
· On the eastern side, merchants trading in scents, garlands, grains, and liquids, together with expert artisans and the people of Kshatriya caste shall have their habitations.
· The treasury, the accountant’s office, and various manufactories (karmanishadyáscha) shall be situated on sites south by east.
· The store-house of forest produce and the arsenal shall be constructed on sites south by west.
· To the south, the superintendents of the city, of commerce, of manufactories, and of the army as well as those who trade in cooked rice, liquor, and flesh, besides prostitutes, musicians, and the people of Vaisya caste shall live.
· To the west by south, stables of asses, camels, and working house.
· To the west by north, stables of conveyances and chariots.
· To the west, artisans manufacturing worsted threads, cotton threads, bamboo-mats, skins, armours, weapons, and gloves as well as the people of Súdra caste shall have their dwellings.
· To the north by west, shops and hospitals.
· To the north by east, the treasury and the stables of cows and horses.
· To the north, the royal tutelary deity of the city, ironsmiths, artisans working on precious stones, as well as Bráhmans shall reside.
· In the several corners, guilds and corporations of workmen shall reside.
· In the centre of the city, the apartments of Gods such as Aparájita, Apratihata, Jayanta, Vaijayanta, Siva, Vaisravana, Asvina (divine physicians), and the honourable liquor-house (Srí-madiragriham), shall be situated.
· In the corners, the guardian deities of the ground shall be appropriately set up.
· Likewise the principal gates such as Bráhma, Aindra, Yámya, and Sainápatya shall be constructed; and at a distance of 100 bows (dhanus = 108 angulas) from the ditch (on the counterscarp side), places of worship and pilgrimage, groves and buildings shall be constructed.
· Guardian deities of all quarters shall also be set up in quarters appropriate to them.
· Either to the north or the east, burial or cremation grounds shall be situated; but that of the people of the highest caste shall be to the south (of the city).
· Violation of this rule shall be punished with the first amercement.
· Heretics and Chandálas shall live beyond the burial grounds.
· Families of workmen may in any other way be provided with sites befitting with their occupation and field work. Besides working in flower-gardens, fruit-gardens, vegetable-gardens, and paddy-fields allotted to them, they (families) shall collect grains and merchandise in abundance as authorised.
· There shall be a water-well for every ten houses.
· Oils, grains, sugar, salt, medicinal articles, dry or fresh vegetables, meadow grass, dried flesh, haystock, firewood, metals, skins, charcoal, tendons (snáyu), poison, horns, bamboo, fibrous garments, strong timber, weapons, armour, and stones shall also be stored (in the fort) in such quantities as can be enjoyed for years together without feeling any want. Of such collection, old things shall be replaced by new ones when received.
· Elephants, cavalry, chariots, and infantry shall each be officered with many chiefs inasmuch as chiefs, when many, are under the fear of betrayal from each other and scarcely liable to the insinuations and intrigues of an enemy.
· The same rule shall hold good with the appointment of boundary, guards, and repairers of fortifications.
- Never shall báhirikas who are dangerous to the well being of cities and countries be kept in forts. They may either be thrown in country parts or compelled to pay taxes.
[Thus ends Chapter IV, “ Buildings within the Fort” in Book II, “The Duties of the Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of twenty-fifth chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER V. THE DUTIES OF THE CHAMBERLAIN.
· THE Chamberlain (sannidhátá = one who ever attends upon the king) shall see to the construction of the treasury-house, trading-house, the store-house of grains, the store-house of forest produce, the armoury and the jail.
· Having dug up a square well not too deep to be moist with water, having paved both the bottom and the sides with slabs of stone, he shall, by using strong timber, construct in that well a cage-like under-ground chamber of three stories high, the top-most being on a level with the surface of the ground, with many compartments of various design, with floor plastered with small stones, with one door, with a movable staircase, and solemnised with the presence of the guardian deity.
· Above this chamber, the treasury house closed on both sides, with projecting roofs and extensively opening into the store-house shall be built of bricks.
· He may employ outcast men (abhityakta-purusha) to build at the extreme boundary of the kingdom a palacious mansion to hold substantial treasure against dangers and calamities.
· The trading-house shall be a quadrangle enclosed by four buildings with one door, with pillars built of burnt bricks, with many compartments, and with a row of pillars on both sides kept apart.
· The store-house shall consist of many spacious rooms and enclose within itself the store-house of forest produce separated from it by means of wall and connected with both the underground chamber and the armoury.
· The court (dharmasthíya) and the office of the ministers (mahámátríya) shall be built in a separate locality.
· Provided with separate accommodation for men and women kept apart and with many compartments well guarded, a jail shall also be constructed.
· All these buildings shall be provided with halls (sála) pits (kháta—privy [?]), water-well, bath-room, remedies against fire and poison, with cats, mangooses, and with necessary means to worship the guardian gods appropriate to each.
· In (front of) the store-house a bowl (kunda) with its mouth as wide as an aratni (24 angulag) shall be set up as rain-gauge (varshamána).
· Assisted by experts having necessary qualifications and provided with tools and instruments, the chamberlain shall attend to the business of receiving gems either old or new, as well as raw materials of superior or inferior value.
· In cases of deception in gems, both the deceiver and the abettor shall be punished with the highest amercement; in the case of superior commodities, they shall be punished with the middle-most amercement; and in that of commodities of inferior value, they shall be compelled not only to restore the same, but also pay a fine equal to the value of the articles.
· He shall receive only such gold coins as have been declared to be pure by the examiner of coins.
· Counterfeit coins shall be cut into pieces.
· Whoever brings in counterfeit coins shall be punished with the first amercement.
· Grains pure and fresh shall be received in full measures; otherwise a fine of twice the value of the grains shall be imposed.
· The same rule shall hold good with the receipt of merchandise, raw materials, and weapons.
· In all departments, whoever, whether as an officer (yukta), a clerk (upayukta), or a servant (tatpurusha), misappropriates sums from one to four panas or any other valuable things shall be punished with the first, middlemost, and highest amercements and death respectively.
· If the officer who is in charge of the treasury causes loss in money, he shall be whipped (ghátah), while his abettors shall receive half the punishment; if the loss is due to ignorance, he shall be censured.
· If, with the intention of giving a hint, robbers are frightened (by the guards), (the latter) shall be tortured to death.
· Hence assisted by trustworthy persons, the chamberlain shall attend to the business of revenue collection.
- He shall have so thorough a knowledge of both external and internal incomes running even for a hundred years that, when questioned, he can point out without hesitation the exact amount of net balance that remains after expenditure has been met with.
[Thus ends Chapter V, "The Duty of the Chamberlain" in Book II, "The Duties of the Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of twenty-sixth chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER VI. THE BUSINESS OF COLLECTION OF REVENUE BY THE COLLECTOR-GENERAL.
· THE Collector-General shall attend to (the collection of revenue from) forts (durga), country-parts (ráshtra), mines (khani), buildings and gardens (setu), forests (vana), herds of cattle (vraja), and roads of traffic (vanikpatha).
· Tolls, fines, weights and measures, the town-clerk (nágaraka), the superintendent of coinage (lakshanádhyakshah), the superintendent of seals and pass-ports, liquor, slaughter of animals, threads, oils,. ghee, sugar (kshára), the state-goldsmith (sauvarnika), the warehouse of merchandise, the prostitute, gambling, building sites (vástuka), the corporation of artisans and handicrafts-men (kárusilpiganah), the superintendent of gods, and taxes collected at the gates and from the people (known as) Báhirikas come under the head of forts.
· Produce from crown-lands (sita), portion of produce payable to the government (bhága), religious taxes (bali), taxes paid in money (kara), merchants, the superintendent of rivers, ferries, boats, and ships, towns, pasture grounds, road-cess (vartani), ropes (rajjú) and ropes to bind thieves (chórarajjú) come under the head of country parts.
· Gold, silver, diamonds, gems, pearls, corals, conch-shells, metals (loha), salt, and other minerals extracted from plains and mountain slopes come under the head of mines.
· Flower-gardens, fruit-gardens, vegetable-gardens, wet fields, and fields where crops are grown by sowing roots for seeds (múlavápáh, i.e., sugar-cane crops, etc.) come under sétu.
· Game-forests, timber-forests, and elephant-forests are forests.
· Cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, asses, camels, horses, and mules come under the head of herds.
· Land and water ways are the roads of traffic.
· All these form the body of income (áyasaríram).
· Capital (múla), share (bhága), premia (vyáji), parigha (?) fixed taxes (klripta), premia on coins (rúpika), and fixed fines (atyaya) are the several forms of revenue (áyamukha, i.e., the mouth from which income is to issue).
· The chanting of auspicious hymns during the worship of gods and ancestors, and on the occasion of giving gifts, the harem, the kitchen, the establishment of messengers, the store-house, the armoury, the warehouse, the store-house of raw materials, manufactories (karmánta), free labourers (vishti), maintenance of infantry, cavalry, chariots, and elephants, herds of cows, the museum of beasts, deer, birds, and snakes, and storage of firewood and fodder constitute the body of expenditure (vyayasaríram).
· The royal year, the month, the paksha, the day, the dawn (vyushta), the third and seventh pakshas of (the seasons such as) the rainy season, the winter season, and the summer short of their days, the rest complete, and a separate intercalary month are (the divisions of time).
· He shall also pay attention to the work in hand (karaníya), the work accomplished (siddham), part of a work in hand (sésha), receipts, expenditure, and net balance.
· The business of upkeeping the government (samsthánam), the routine work (prachárah), the collection of necessaries of life, the collection and audit of all kinds of revenue,—these constitute the work in hand.
· That which has been credited to the treasury; that which has been taken by the king; that which has been spent in connection with the capital city not entered (into the register) or continued from year before last, the royal command dictated or orally intimated to be entered (into the register),—all these constitute the work accomplished.
· Preparation of plans for profitable works, balance of fines due, demand for arrears of revenue kept in abeyance, and examination of accounts,—these constitute what is called part of a work in hand which may be of little or no value.
· Receipts may be (1) current, (2) last balance, and (3) accidental (anyajátah= received from external source).
· What is received day after day is termed current (vartamána).
· Whatever has been brought forward from year before last, whatever is in the hands of others, and whatever has changed hands is termed last balance (puryushita).
· Whatever has been lost and forgotten (by others), fines levied from government servants, marginal revenue (pársva), compensation levied for any damage (párihínikam), presentations to the king, the property of those who have fallen victims to epidemics (damaragatakasvam) leaving no sons, and treasure-troves,---all these constitute accidental receipts.
· Investment of capital (vikshépa), the relics of a wrecked undertaking, and the savings from an estimated outlay are the means to check expenditure (vyayapratyayah).
· The rise in price of merchandise due to the use of different weights and measures in selling is termed vyáji; the enhancement of price due to bidding among buyers is also another source of profit.
· Expenditure is of two kinds—daily expenditure and profitable expenditure.
· What is continued every day is daily.
· Whatever is earned once in a paksha, a month, or a year is termed profit.
· Whatever is spent on these two heads is termed as daily expenditure and profitable expenditure respectively.
· That which remains after deducting all the expenditure already incurred and excluding all revenue to be realised is net balance (nívi) which may have been either just realised or brought forward.
- Thus a wise collector-general shall conduct the work of revenue-collection, increasing the income and decreasing the expenditure.
[Thus ends Chapter VI, “The Business of Collection of Revenue by the Collector-General” in Book II, “The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the twenty-seventh chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER VII. THE BUSINESS OF KEEPING UP ACCOUNTS IN THE OFFICE OF ACCOUNTANTS.
- THE superintendent of accounts shall have the accountant's office constructed with its door facing either the north or the east, with seats (for clerks) kept apart and with shelves of account-books well arranged.
- Therein the number of several departments; the description of the work carried on and of the results realised in several manufactories (Karmánta); the amount of profit, loss, expenditure, delayed earnings, the amount of vyáji (premia in kind or cash) realised,—the status of government agency employed, the amount of wages paid, the number of free labourers engaged (vishti) pertaining to the investment of capital on any work; likewise in the case of gems and commodities of superior or inferior value, the rate of their price, the rate of their barter, the counterweights (pratimána) used in weighing them, their number, their weight, and their cubical measure; the history of customs, professions, and transactions of countries, villages, families, and corporations; the gains in the form of gifts to the king's courtiers, their title to possess and enjoy lands, remission of taxes allowed to them, and payment of provisions and salaries to them; the gains to the wives and sons of the king in gems, lands, prerogatives, and provisions made to remedy evil portents; the treaties with, issues of ultimatum to, and payments of tribute from or to, friendly or inimical kings,— all these shall be regularly entered in prescribed registers.
- From these books the superintendent shall furnish the accounts as to the forms of work in hand, of works accomplished, of part of works in hand, of receipts, of expenditure, of net balance, and of tasks to be undertaken in each of the several departments.
- To supervise works of high, middling and low description, superintendents with corresponding qualifications shall be employed.
- The king will have to suffer in the end if he curtails the fixed amount of expenditure on profitable works.
- (When a man engaged by Government for any work absents himself), his sureties who conjointly received (wages?) from the government, or his sons, brothers, wives, daughters or servants living upon his work shall bear the loss caused to the Government.
- The work of 354 days and nights is a year. Such a work shall be paid for more or less in proportion to its quantity at the end of the month, Ashádha (about the middle of July). (The work during) the intercalary month shall be (separately) calculated.
- A government officer, not caring to know the information gathered by espionage and neglecting to supervise the despatch of work in his own department as regulated, may occasion loss of revenue to the government owing to his ignorance, or owing to his idleness when he is too weak to endure the trouble of activity, or due to inadvertence in perceiving sound and other objects of sense, or by being timid when he is afraid of clamour, unrighteousness, and untoward results, or owing to selfish desire when he is favourably disposed towards those who are desirous to achieve their own selfish ends, or by cruelty due to anger, or by lack of dignity when he is surrounded by a host of learned and needy sycophants, or by making use of false balance, false measures, and false calculation owing to greediness.
- The school of Manu hold that a fine equal to the loss of revenue and multiplied by the serial number of the circumstances of the guilt just narrated in order shall be imposed upon him.
- The school of Parásara hold that the fine in all the cases shall be eight times the amount lost.
- The school of Brihaspathi say that it shall be ten times the amount.
- The school of Usanas say that it shall be twenty times the amount.
- But Kautilya says that it shall be proportional to the guilt.
- Accounts shall be submitted in the month of Ashádha.
- When they (the accountants of different districts) present themselves with sealed books, commodities and net revenue, they shall all be kept apart in one place so that they cannot carry on conversation with each other. Having heard from them the totals of receipts, expenditure, and net revenue, the net amount shall be received.
- By how much the superintendent of a department augments the net total of its revenue either by increasing any one of the items of its receipts or by decreasing anyone of the items of expenditure, he shall be rewarded eight times that amount. But when it is reversed (i.e., when the net total is decreased), the award shall also be reversed (i.e., he shall be made to pay eight times the decrease).
- Those accountants who do not present themselves in time or do not produce their account books along with the net revenue shall be fined ten times the amount due from them.
- When a superintendent of accounts (káranika) does not at once proceed to receive and check the accounts when the clerks (kármika) are ready, he shall be punished with the first amercement. In the reverse case (i.e., when the clerks are not ready), the clerks shall be punished with double the first amercement.
- All the ministers (mahámáras) shall together narrate the whole of the actual accounts pertaining to each department.
- Whoever of these (ministers or clerks ?) is of undivided counsel or keeps himself aloof, or utters falsehood shall be punished with the highest amercement.
- When an accountant has not prepared the table of daily accounts (akritáhorúpaharam), he may be given a month more (for its preparation). After the lapse of one month he shall be fined at the rate of 200 panas for each month (during which he delays the accounts).
- If an accountant has to write only a small portion of the accounts pertaining to net revenue, he may be allowed five nights to prepare it.
- Then the table of daily accounts submitted by him along with the net revenue shall be checked with reference to the regulated forms of righteous transactions and precedents and by applying such arithmetical processes as addition, subtraction, inference and by espionage. It shall also be verified with reference to (such divisions of time as) days, five nights, pakshás, months, four-months, and the year.
- The receipt shall be verified with reference to the place and time pertaining to them, the form of their collection (i.e., capital, share), the amount of the present and past produce, the person who has paid it, the person who caused its payment, the officer who fixed the amount payable, and the officer who received it. The expenditure shall be verified with reference to the cause of the profit from any source in the place and time pertaining to each item, the amount payable, the amount paid, the person who ordered the collection, the person who remitted the same, the person who delivered it, and the person who finally received it.
- Likewise the net revenue shall be verified with reference to the place, time, and source pertaining to it, its standard of fineness and quantity, and the persons who are employed to guard the deposits and magazines (of grains, etc.).
- When an officer (káranika) does not facilitate or prevents the execution of the king's order, or renders the receipts and expenditure otherwise than prescribed, he shall be punished with the first amercement.
- Any clerk who violates or deviates from the prescribed form of writing accounts, enters what is unknown to him, or makes double or treble entries (punaruktam) shall be fined 12 panas.
- He who scrapes off the net total shall be doubly punished.
- He who eats it up shall be fined eight times.
- He who causes loss of revenue shall not only pay a fine equal to five times the amount lost (panchabandha), but also make good the loss. In case of uttering a lie, the punishment levied for theft shall be imposed. (When an entry lost or omitted) is made later or is made to appear as forgotten, but added later on recollection, the punishment shall be double the above.
- The king shall forgive an offence when it is trifling, have satisfaction even when the revenue is scanty, and honour with rewards (pragraha) such of his superintendents as are of immense benefit to him.
[Thus ends Chapter VII, "The Business of Keeping up the Accounts in the Officeof Accountants," in Book II, "The Duties of Government Superintendents" of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of twenty-eighth chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER VIII. DETECTION OF WHAT IS EMBEZZLED BY GOVERNMENT SERVANTS OUT OF STATE REVENUE.
· ALL undertakings depend upon finance. Hence foremost attention shall be paid to the treasury.
· Public prosperity (prachárasamriddhih), rewards for good conduct (charitránugrahah), capture of thieves, dispensing with (the service of too many) government servants, abundance of harvest, prosperity of commerce, absence of troubles and calamities (upasargapramokshah), diminution of remission of taxes, and income in gold (hiranyópáyanam) are all conducive to financial prosperity.
· Obstruction (pratibandha), loan (prayóga), trading (vyavahára), fabrication of accounts (avastára), causing the loss of revenue (parihápana), self-enjoyment (upabhóga), barter (parivartana), and defalcation (apahára) are the causes that tend to deplete the treasury.
· Failure to start an undertaking or to realise its results, or to credit its profits (to the treasury) is known as obstruction. Herein a fine of ten times the amount in question shall be imposed.
· Lending the money of the treasury on periodical interest is a loan.
· Carrying on trade by making use of government money is trading.
· These two acts shall be punished with a fine of twice the profit earned.
· Whoever makes as unripe the ripe time or as ripe the unripe time (of revenue collection) is guilty of fabrication. Herein a fine of ten times the amount (panchabandha) shall be imposed.
· Whoever lessens a fixed amount of income or enhances the expenditure is guilty of causing the loss of revenue. Herein a fine of four times the loss shall be imposed.
· Whoever enjoys himself or causes others to enjoy whatever belongs to the king is guilty of self-enjoyment. Herein death-sentence shall be passed for enjoying gems, middlemost amercement for enjoying valuable articles, and restoration of the articles together with a fine equal to their value shall be the punishment for enjoying articles of inferior value.
· The act of exchanging government articles for (similar) articles of others is barter. This offence is explained by self-enjoyment.
· Whoever does not take into the treasury the fixed amount of revenue collected, or does not spend what is ordered to be spent, or misrepresents the net revenue collected is guilty of defalcation of government money. Herein a fine of twelve times the amount shall be imposed.
· There are about forty ways of embezzlement: what is realised earlier is entered later on; what is realised later is entered earlier; what ought to be realised is not realised; what is hard to realise is shown as realised; what is collected is shown as not collected; what has not been collected is shown as collected; what is collected in part is entered as collected in full; what is collected in full is entered as collected in part; what is collected is of one sort, while what is entered is of another sort; what is realised from one source is shown as realised from another; what is payable is not paid; what is not payable is paid; not paid in time; paid untimely; small gifts made large gifts; large gifts made small gifts; what is gifted is of one sort while what is entered is of another; the real donee is one while the person entered (in the register) as donee is another; what has been taken into (the treasury) is removed while what has not been credited to it is shown as credited; raw materials that are not paid for are entered, while those that are paid for are not entered; an aggregate is scattered in pieces; scattered items are converted into an aggregate; commodities of greater value are bartered for those of small value; what is of smaller value is bartered for one of greater value; price of commodities enhanced; price of commodities lowered; number of nights increased; number of nights decreased; the year not in harmony with its months; the month not in harmony with its days; inconsistency in the transactions carried on with personal supervision (samágamavishánah); misrepresentation of the source of income; inconsistency in giving charities; incongruity in representing the work turned out; inconsistency in dealing with fixed items; misrepresentation of test marks or the standard of fineness (of gold and silver); misrepresentation of prices of commodities; making use of false weight and measures; deception in counting articles; and making use of false cubic measures such as bhájan— these are the several ways of embezzlement.
· Under the above circumstances, the persons concerned such as the treasurer (nidháyaka), the prescriber (nibandhaka), the receiver (pratigráhaka), the payer (dáyaka), the person who caused the payment (dápaka), the ministerial servants of the officer (mantri-vaiyávrityakara) shall each be separately examined. If any one of these tells a lie, he shall receive the same punishment as the chief-officer, (yukta) who committed the offence.
· A proclamation in public (prachára) shall be made to the effect "whoever has suffered at the hands of this offender may make their grievances known to the king."
· Those who respond to the call shall receive such compensation as is equal to the loss they have sustained.
· When there are a number of offences in which a single officer is involved, and when his being guilty of parókta in any one of those charges has been established, he shall be answerable for all those offences. Otherwise (i.e., when it is not established), he shall be tried for each of the charges.
· When a government servant has been proved to be guilty of having misappropriated part of a large sum in question, he shall be answerable for the whole.
· Any informant (súchaka) who supplies information about embezzlement just under perpetration shall, if he succeeds in proving it, get as reward one-sixth of the amount in question; if he happens to be a government servant (bhritaka), he shall get for the same act one-twelfth of the amount.
· If an informant succeeds in proving only a part of a big embezzlement, he shall, nevertheless, get the prescribed share of the part of the embezzled amount proved.
· An informant who fails to prove (his assertion) shall be liable to monetary or corporal punishment, and shall never be acquitted.
· When the charge is proved, the informant may impute the tale-bearing to someone else or clear himself in any other way from the blame. Any informant who withdraws his assertion prevailed upon by the insinuations of the accused shall be condemned to death.
[Thus ends Chapter VIII, "Detection of what is Embezzled by Government Servants out of State Revenue," in Book II, " The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of twenty-ninth chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER IX. EXAMINATION OF THE CONDUCT OF GOVERNMENT SERVANTS.
· THOSE who are possessed of ministerial qualifications shall, in accordance with their individual capacity, be appointed as superintendents of government departments. While engaged in work, they shall be daily examined; for men are naturally fickle-minded and like horses at work exhibit constant change in their temper. Hence the agency and tools which they make use of, the place and time of the work they are engaged in, as well as the precise form of the work, the outlay, and the results shall always be ascertained.
· Without dissension and without any concert among themselves, they shall carry on their work as ordered.
· When in concert, they eat up (the revenue).
· When in disunion, they mar the work.
· Without bringing to the knowledge of their master (bhartri, the king), they shall undertake nothing except remedial measures against imminent dangers.
· A fine of twice the amount of their daily pay and of the expenditure (incurred by them) shall be fixed for any inadvertence on their part.
· Whoever of the superintendents makes as much as, or more than, the amount of fixed revenue shall be honoured with promotion and rewards.
· (My) teacher holds that that officer who spends too much and brings in little revenue eats it up; while he who proves the revenue (i.e., brings in more than he spends) as well as the officer who brings inasmuch as he spends does not eat up the revenue.
· But Kautilya holds that cases of embezzlement or no embezzlement can be ascertained through spies alone.
· Whoever lessens the revenue eats the king's wealth. If owing to inadvertence he causes diminution in revenue, he shall be compelled to make good the loss.
· Whoever doubles the revenue eats into the vitality of the country. If he brings in double the amount to the king, he shall, if the offence is small, be warned not to repeat the same; but if the offence be grave he should proportionally be punished.
· Whoever spends the revenue (without bringing in any profit) eats up the labour of workmen. Such an officer shall be punished in proportion to the value of the work done, the number of days taken, the amount of capital spent, and the amount of daily wages paid.
· Hence the chief officer of each department (adhikarana) shall thoroughly scrutinise the real amount of the work done, the receipts realised from, and the expenditure incurred in that departmental work both in detail and in the aggregate.
· He shall also check (pratishedhayet) prodigal, spend-thrift and niggardly persons.
· Whoever unjustly eats up the property left by his father and grandfather is a prodigal person (múlahara).
· Whoever eats all that he earns is a spendthrift (tádátvika).
· Whoever hordes money, entailing hardship both on himself and his servants is niggardly.
· Whoever of these three kinds of persons has the support of a strong party shall not be disturbed; but he who has no such support shall be caught hold of (paryádátavyah).
· Whoever is niggardly in spite of his immense property, hordes, deposits, or sends out—hordes in his own house, deposits with citizens or country people or sends out to foreign countries;—a spy shall find out the advisers, friends, servants, relations, partisans, as well as the income and expenditure of such a niggardly person. Whoever in a foreign country carries out the work of such a niggardly person shall be prevailed upon to give out the secret. When the secret is known, the niggardly person shall be murdered apparently under the orders of (his) avowed enemy.
· Hence the superintendents of all the departments shall carry on their respective works in company with accountants, writers, coin-examiners, the treasurers, and military officers (uttarádhyaksha).
· Those who attend upon military officers and are noted for their honesty and good conduct shall be spies to watch the conduct of accountants and other clerks.
· Each department shall be officered by several temporary heads.
· Just as it is impossible not to taste the honey or the poison that finds itself at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up, at least, a bit of the king's revenue. Just as fish moving under water cannot possibly be found out either as drinking or not drinking water, so government servants employed in the government work cannot be found out (while) taking money (for themselves).
· It is possible to mark the movements of birds flying high up in the sky; but not so is it possible to ascertain the movement of government servants of hidden purpose.
· Government servants shall not only be confiscated of their ill-earned hordes, but also be transferred from one work to another, so that they cannot either misappropriate Government money or vomit what they have eaten up.
· Those who increase the king's revenue instead of eating it up and are loyally devoted to him shall be made permanent in service.
[Thus ends Chapter IX, "Examination of the Conduct of Government Servants" in Book II, "The Duties of Government Superintendents" of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of thirtieth chapter from the beginning.]
CHAPTER X. THE PROCEDURE OF FORMING ROYAL WRITS.
· (TEACHERS) say that (the word) sásana, command, (is applicable only to) royal writs (sásana).
· Writs are of great importance to kings inasmuch as treaties and ultimate leading to war depend upon writs.
· Hence one who is possessed of ministerial qualifications, acquainted with all kinds of customs, smart in composition, good in legible writing, and sharp in reading shall be appointed as a writer (lékhaka).
· Such a writer, having attentively listened to the king's order and having well thought out the matter under consideration, shall reduce the order to writing.
· As to a writ addressed to a lord (ísvara), it shall contain a polite mention of his country, his possessions, his family and his name, and as to that addressed to a common man (anisvara), it shall make a polite mention of his country and name.
· Having paid sufficient attention to the caste, family, social rank, age, learning (sruta), occupation, property, character (síla), blood-relationship (yaunánubandha) of the addressee, as well as to the place and time (of writing), the writer shall form a writ befitting the position of the person addressed.
· Arrangement of subject-matter (arthakrama), relevancy (sambandha), completeness, sweetness, dignity, and lucidity are the necessary qualities of a writ.
· The act of mentioning facts in the order of their importance is arrangement.
· When subsequent facts are not contradictory to facts just or previously mentioned, and so on till the completion of the letter, it is termed relevancy.
· Avoidance of redundancy or deficiency in words or letters; impressive description of subject matter by citing reasons, examples, and illustrations; and the use of appropriate and suitably strong words (asrántapada) is completeness.
· The description in exquisite style of a good purport with a pleasing effect is sweetness.
· The use of words other than colloquial (agrámya) is dignity.
· The use of well-known words is lucidity.
· The alphabetical letters beginning with Akára are sixty-three.
· The combination of letters is a word (pada). The word is of four kinds—nouns, verbs, prefixes of verbs, and particles (nipáta).
· A noun is that which signifies an essence (satva).
· A verb is that which has no definite gender and signifies an action.
· 'Pra' and other words are the prefixes of verbs.
· 'Cha' and other indeclinable words are particles.
· A group of words conveying a complete sense is a sentence (vákya).
· Combination of words (varga) consisting of not more than three words and not less than one word shall be so formed as to harmonise with the meaning of immediately following words.
· The word, ‘iti,’ is used to indicate the completion of a writ; and also to indicate an oral message as in the phrase ‘váchikamasyeti,’ an oral message along with this (writ).
· Calumniation (nindá), commendation, inquiry, narration request, refusal, censure, prohibition, command, conciliation, promise of help, threat, and persuasion are the thirteen purposes for which writs are issued.
· Calumniation (nindá) consists in speaking ill of one's family, body and acts.
· Commendation (prasamsá) consists in praising one's family, person, and acts.
· To inquire 'how is this?' is inquiry.
· To point out the way as 'thus,' is narration (ákhyána).
· To entreat as 'give,' is request.
· To say that 'I do not give,' is refusal.
· To say that 'it is not worthy of thee,' is censure (upálambhah).
· To say as 'do not do so,' is prohibition (pratishedha).
· To say that 'this should be done,' is command (chódaná).
· To say 'what I am, thou art that; whichever article is mine is thine also, is conciliation (sántvam).
· To hold out help in trouble is promise of help (abhyavapattih).
· Pointing out the evil consequences that may occur in future is threat (abhibartsanam).
· Persuasion is of three kinds: that made for the purpose of money, that made in case of one's failure to fulfill a promise, and that made on occasion of any trouble.
· Also writs of information, of command, and of gift; likewise writs of remission, of licence, of guidance, of reply, and of general proclamation are other varieties.
· Thus says (the messenger); so says (the king); if there is any truth in this (statement of the messenger), then the thing (agreed to) should at once be surrendered; (the messenger) has informed the king of all the deeds of the enemy. (Parakára);—this is the writ of information which is held to be of various forms.
· Wherever and especially regarding Government servants the king's order either for punishment or for rewards is issued, it is called writ of command (ájnálékha).
· Where the bestowal of honour for deserving merit is contemplated either as help to alleviate affliction (ádhi) or as gift (paridána), there are issued writs of gift (upagrahalekha).
· Whatever favour (anugraha) to special castes, cities, villages, or countries of various description is announced in obedience to the king's order, it is called writ of remission (pariháralékha) by those who know it.
· Likewise licence or permission (nisrishti) shall be enjoined either in word or deed; accordingly it is styled verbal order or writ of licence.
· Various kinds of providential visitations or well ascertained evils of human make are believed to be the cause for issuing writs of guidance (pravrittilékha) to attempt remedies against them.
· When having read a letter and discussed as to the form of reply thereto, a reply in accordance with the king's order is made, it is called a writ of reply (pratilékha).
· When the king directs his viceroys (isvara) and other officers to protect and give material help to travellers either on roads or in the interior of the country, it is termed writ of general proclamation (sarvatraga lekha)
· Negotiation, bribery, causing dissension, and open attack are forms of stratagem (upáya).
· Negotiation is of five kinds:—
· Praising the qualities (of an enemy), narrating the mutual relationship, pointing out mutual benefit, showing vast future prospects, and identity of interests.
· When the family, person, occupation, conduct, learning, properties, etc. (of an enemy) are commended with due attention to their worth, it is termed praising the qualities (gunasankírthana).
· When the fact of having agnates, blood-relations, teachers (maukha), priestly heirarchy (srauva), family, and friends in common is pointed out, it is known as narration of mutual relationship (sambandhópakhyána).
· When both parties, the party of a king and that of his enemy are shown to be helpful to each other, it is known as pointing out mutual benefit (parasparópakárasamdarsanam).
· Inducement such as 'this being done thus, such result will accrue to both of us,' is showing vast future prospects (Ayátipradarsanam).
· To say 'what I am, that thou art; thou mayest utilize in thy works whatever is mine,' is identity of interests (átmópanidhánam).
· Offering money is bribery (upapradána).
· Causing fears and suspicion as well as threatening is known as sowing dissension.
· Killing, harassing, and plundering is attack (danda).
· Clumsiness, contradiction, repetition, bad grammar, and misarrangement are the faults of a writ.
· Black and ugly leaf, (kálapatrakamacháru) and uneven and uncoloured (virága) writing cause clumsiness (akánti).
· Subsequent portion disagreeing with previous portion of a letter, causes contradiction (vyágháta).
· Stating for a second time what has already been said above is repetition.
· Wrong use of words in gender, number, time and case is bad grammar (apasabda).
· Division of paragraphs (varga) in unsuitable places, omission of necessary division of paragraphs, and violation of any other necessary qualities of a writ constitute misarrangement (samplava).
- Having followed all sciences and having fully observed forms of writing in vogue, these rules of writing royal writs have been laid down by Kautilya in the interest of kings.
[Thus ends Chapter X, "The Procedure of Forming Royal Writs," in Book II, "The Duties of Government Superintendents," of the Arthasástra of Kautilva. End of thirty-first chapter from the beginning.]
(My humble salutations to Sreeman R Shamasastry for the collection)
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