Hindu Administrative Institutions c12.s1.52

c12.s1.52

There are some other regulations which may be mentioned in passing. The first is that if a theft could not be found out it is for the officer to make good the loss. The officials themselves along with their servants lived on the outskirts of the village. Again it is ordained that no soldiers were to enter the villages, nor any of the villagers to enter into any kind of transaction with them.¹ These regulations show that the state did not want to disturb in the least the simple and peaceful life of the villagers. Yet another regulation was the exemption granted to certain classes of people from paying the taxes (*śulka*) such as the *śrotriya*, women of all castes, minors, students, ascetics, Sūdras in menial service, the blind, the dumb, the deaf and the diseased so long as their infirmities lasted.² Only pure and honest men were employed as officials and their subordinates in service.