Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c7.s6.t2.6

c7.s6.t2.6

The elaborate description of the robbers given in Jain canons¹⁸ shows that they were very powerful and it was difficult even for the king to suppress them. There were regular fights between the king's army and the robbers which sometimes resulted in the defeat of the former. The robbers carried off the cows,¹⁹ horses, maid-servants, children,²⁰ even nuns,²¹ and set fire to the villages, towns, houses and forests. They destroyed the ships, extracted money at the point of the sword, made forcible entry into the residence of monks and threatened them with death.²³ The thieves were expert in making breaches in the wall. Various types of the breaches of the wall are mentioned, *viz.*, the breach of the shape of a cornice (*kavisīsa*), jar (*kalasa*), fish (*nandīvatta*),²³ lotus and a human being. It is stated that once a burglar was caught in the breach he had excavated, by the owner of the house who took hold of his feet protruding from the breach. But the burglar’s companions dragged him out from the other side of the wall. Caught in this position he was smashed by the cornice coming down.²⁴ The robbers came out at night and at times lived on half-burnt corpses, flesh of wild animals and roots.²⁵