Hindu Administrative Institutions c10.s3.29

c10.s3.29

The *Kauṭalīya* devotes three chapters to the law regulating immoveable property; houses, fields, gardens, tanks, and others. Owners of immoveables would in the first instance offer them for sale to their kinsmen (ज्ञातयः), and then to their neighbours (*sāmanta*), and on the rejection from both their own creditors. From these Jolly and Law infer that the right of pre-emption existed in ancient India though disproved by the *Mitākṣara* and other commentaries.¹ Such a sale was to be effected by public auction and before forty elders of the neighbourhood. If the bidding exceeds the already published price the excess is made over to the state besides a certain percentage of duty on the sale price. It is significant to note that by formulating these rules ancient compilers of the *Dharmaśāstras* and writers of the *Arthaśāstras* endeavoured their best to avoid complicated cases of litigation which is a sad feature of our times. As regards houses, buildings, there are regulations affecting their permanence, sanitation, construction of windows, drainage, water-supply, privy, etc. Disputes arising from them and such others as the boundary disputes were to be settled by the neighbours and village elders. Wrongful possession of estates and the enjoyment there-of were severely dealt with, these amounting to cases of theft. Damages of any sort to irrigational works were visited with high penalty.²