History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.230.4

v4.c62.230.4

only such weights and measures are to be used as bear the royal stamp; all subjects should strive to possess good qualities; desperadoes should be arrested and handed over to the king; bulls let loose (in memory of the dead) should be kept well controlled and fed by those who let them loose. Medhātithi on Manu VIII. 399 states that a king may prohibit the export of foodstuffs from the kingdom in a famine. The several edicts of Aśoka show that his orders were framed on the same lines that are contained centuries later on in the Śukranītisāra. Most of his proclamations insist on moral virtues such as truthfulness, obedience and reverence to parents, elders and preceptors, honouring brāhmaṇas and śramaṇas, kindness to animals, tolerance of other faiths. Proclamations that may be called positive laws are very few, such as his order in Pillar Edict IV to give three days' respite to criminals condemned to death (C. I. I. vol. I p. 125) or his regulations restricting the killing of animals contained in the 5th Pillar Edict (C. I. I. vol. I. p. 138) or in the First Rock Edict at Girnar (p. 7) 'no living being must be killed or sacrificed and no festival meeting must be held'. In the reign of Avantivarman of Kashmir the killing of living beings was prohibited for ten years (vide Rājataraṅgiṇī V. 64). Law-making in the modern sense is almost entirely lacking in the smṛtis. Gaut. XI.