Hindu Administrative Institutions c12.s6.46

c12.s6.46

The responsibilities of the watchmen were great. They had alone power to punish the evilly bent. If by any reason men of good conduct were arrested by them or if they misbehaved towards slave girls they were punished. If they misbehaved or seduced family women (*kulastri*) the punishment was nothing short of death. These were regulations to maintain the public morals of the city. The citizens of the town or foreigners, when going out of the city or into it, should furnish passes. Failing this, they were punished.² Thus the Municipal administration of ancient India anticipates tendencies which would satisfy even an expert commissioner of a modern city corporation.