Agnipurana 256
English (machine translation) 256
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- English
Contents
256.1
Agni said: / In a dispute over the boundary of a field, neighboring landholders, elderly men, corporations, / cowherds, cultivators working on the boundary, and all forest dwellers
256.2
should trace the boundary marked out by mounds, charcoal, chaff, trees, / dikes, anthills, depressions, bones, sacred trees, and the like.
256.3
Or the neighboring residents of the village—four, eight, or even ten— / wearing red garlands and garments, bearing earth, should determine the boundary.
256.4
If they speak falsely, however, they are to be punished individually by the king with the middle fine for violence; / in the absence of witnesses and markers, the king shall establish the boundary.
256.5
In disputes concerning groves, temples, villages, watering stations, pleasure gardens, houses, / and the courses of rainwater runoffs, this very same rule is to be observed.
256.6
In breaking boundary marks and likewise in seizing a field / or boundary, they should be fined the lowest, highest, and middle fines.
256.7
A dam that causes little injury but brings welfare should not be prohibited, / nor a well encroaching on another's land that occupies little ground but yields abundant water.
256.8
If someone builds a dam on a field without informing the owner, / when it yields produce, the enjoyment belongs to the owner; in his absence, to the king.
256.9
If a man neither cultivates nor causes to be cultivated a field that has even been touched by the plow,
256.9.p1
[Note]
256.9.p2
1. 'catvāro 'tha daśāpi vā' in manuscripts kha, ga, and ña. / [Page 425]
256.9_2
he should be made to pay the value of the unharvested produce, and the field should be caused to be tilled by another.
256.10
A female buffalo destroying standing crops should be fined eight māṣas; / a cow half of that; and a goat or sheep half of that again.
256.11
For animals that sit down after eating, the fine is twice what has been stated; / the fine is the same for them in an enclosed pasture; an ass or a camel is treated like a female buffalo.
256.12
The field owner should receive produce equal to the crop that was destroyed; / the herdsman should be flogged, while the owner of the cattle deserves the aforementioned fine.
256.13
No fault attaches to damage on a path, near a village, or at the edge of pastureland / done unintentionally; but if wandering at will, [the owner] deserves punishment like a thief.
256.14
A breeding bull, dedicated cattle, a cow recently calved, a stray animal, / and those afflicted by an act of God or the king are to be released, even if they have a keeper.
256.15
A cowherd must return the cattle in the evening just as they were entrusted to him; / if any die or are lost through his negligence, he who receives wages must be made to replace them.
256.16
If loss occurs through the keeper's fault, a fine is prescribed for the keeper / amounting to twelve and a half paṇas, and he must restore the animal itself to the owner.
256.17
Pastureland for cows depends on the wish of the village or the authority of the king. / A twice-born man may take grass, firewood, and flowers from anywhere as if they were his own.
256.18
The intervening space between a village and fields should be an extent of one hundred bows; / it should be two hundred bows for a market town (kharvaṭa), and four hundred for a city.
256.19
One may recover one's property sold by another; fault attaches to the buyer in a secret purchase: / from a disreputable person, in secret, at an inadequate price, or at an unseasonable time, he is deemed a thief.
256.20
Having found lost or stolen property, a man should cause the thief to be arrested; / or, if prevented by considerations of place and time, he may seize him himself and deliver him.
256.20.p1
[Page 426]
256.21
By producing the seller, the buyer's clearance is effected; the owner recovers his property, and the king [imposes] a fine. / The buyer receives back his purchase price from whoever was the seller there.
256.22
Lost property must be established through legal acquisition and enjoyment; otherwise, / if it is not so established, he incurs a fine of one-fifth to the king.
256.23
One who recovers lost or stolen property from another's hand / without reporting it to the king, however, should be fined ninety-six paṇas.
256.24
Lost or stolen property brought in by toll-collectors or guards of the post, / the owner receives within a year; after that, it belongs to the king.
256.25
He should give [as salvage fee] four paṇas for a single-hoofed animal, five for a human, / two each for buffaloes, camels, and cattle, and a quarter of a paṇa each for goats and sheep.
256.26
A gift may be made without detriment to one's family, excluding wife and son; / when lineage exists, one's entire property may not be given, nor what has been promised to another.
256.27
Acceptance should be public, especially of immovable property; / what has been promised must indeed be given, and once given, one may not take it back.
256.28
The trial period for seeds, iron, beasts of burden, gems, female slaves, / milch cattle, and male slaves is ten days, one day, five, seven, a month, three days, and half a month respectively.
256.29
Gold suffers no loss in fire; on a hundred [palas] of silver, [loss is] two palas; / on tin and lead, eight; on copper, five; and on iron, ten.
256.30
An increase of ten palas per hundred is recognized for wool and cotton; / for medium cloth, it should be known as five palas; but for fine, it is considered three palas.
256.31
For embroidered cloth and that interwoven with fur, a loss of a thirtieth part is recognized; / but for silk and bark garments there is neither loss nor increase.
256.32
Knowing the place, time, and wear, as well as the relative strength in case of destruction,
256.32.p1
:p 427
256.32_2
experts in materials shall declare what compensation must be paid beyond doubt.
256.33
One enslaved by force or sold by thieves is released, / as also one who saves his master's life, by relinquishing his maintenance, or through ransom.
256.34
An apostate from asceticism becomes the king's slave until death; / slavery proceeds in the direct order of the castes, never in the reverse order.
256.35
An apprentice, even having acquired his craft, shall dwell in his teacher's house for the agreed time; / receiving his food from the teacher, he shall deliver the fruit [of his work] there.
256.36
The king, having established a settlement in the city and settled brāhmaṇas there, / endowed with livelihoods and proficient in the three Vedas, should declare: "Let your own duty be maintained."
256.37
Whatever conventional rule exists that does not conflict with one's own duty, / that too must be zealously guarded, as also any decree established by the king.
256.38
He who steals the property of a corporation or violates an agreement / should be banished from the realm after confiscating all his property.
256.39
The word of those who speak for the welfare of the assembly must be obeyed by all; / he who acts contrary thereto should be made to pay the first fine.
256.40
One dispatched on the business of the assembly shall surrender whatever he acquires; / if he does not surrender it himself, he should be made to pay eleven times as much.
256.41
Those who manage affairs should be knowers of the Vedas, pure, and free from greed; / the word of these who speak for the welfare of the assembly must be obeyed.
256.42
This rule also applies to guilds, mercantile associations, heterodox sects, and corporations; / the king should prevent dissension among them and protect their previous customs.
256.43
A laborer who has received his wages and abandons the work shall pay twice as much; / if he has not received wages, he should be made to pay an equal amount; implements must be protected by the servants.
256.43.p1
:p 428
256.44
One who employs a worker without fixing the wages, however, / should be made by the king to pay a tenth part of the trade, cattle, or crops.
256.45
If someone exceeds the place and time, or performs the work differently, / the master's choice prevails there; more must be given if more work has been done.
256.46
Whoever performs work, his wage is commensurate with that much; / if it becomes impossible for both, he should perform what is possible as agreed.
256.47
A carrier must make good any merchandise lost through causes other than the king or an act of god; / and one who creates an obstacle at the departure must be made to pay double wages.
256.48
One who abandons [the load] at departure shall forfeit a seventh part; along the road, a fourth; / and at the midway point, the whole wage; one who dismisses the carrier must also be made to pay [similarly].
256.49
On a stake with an increase of a hundred, the keeper of the gambling house may take / five percent from a cunning gambler, and ten percent from another.
256.50
Protected properly, he should give to the king the share as fixed; / being patient, he should collect the winnings for the winner and speak true words.
256.51
When the king's share has been received in a recognized circle of gamblers, / he should cause payment of the winnings in a place provided with a gambling house keeper, not otherwise.
256.52
They alone are the judges of disputes and the witnesses; / those who gamble with false dice or trickery should be branded and banished by the king.
256.53
Gambling should be centralized under one authority for the purpose of identifying thieves; / this very same rule is to be understood in the betting on living creatures.
256.53.p1
Thus in the Great Purāṇa of Agni, the two hundred and fifty-sixth chapter, entitled "The Adjudication of Boundary Disputes and Other Matters."
256.53.p2
:p 429
256.53.p4
Now, the two hundred and fifty-seventh chapter:
256.53.p5
The Section on Verbal Abuse and Related Matters.
Other recensions (1)
- Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit