Hindu Administrative Institutions c10.s3.47

c10.s3.47

Passing on to actual criminal cases we find severe punishments meted out for thefts of royal property as well as private property. The scale of fines varied with the values of the property stolen. The same applies to forging deeds or counterfeiting seals. There is mention in the *Arthaśāstra* of the punishment of mutilation, but there is every reason to believe with Monahan² that this practice had fallen into disuse by the time of the composition of the famous treatise. No doubt the older codes recommended the mutilation of certain limb or limbs, graduated according as the gravity of offences warranted.¹ But the author of the *Arthaśāstra* seems to be more humane in outlook. Even in this recommendation, he does not claim any departure from the accepted codes of the land.