History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.282.4

v4.c62.282.4

Whatever ages may be assigned to the Arthaśāstra and the present Manusmṛti the two works cannot be separated from each other, if at all, by more than a century or two. Therefore the economic conditions of the one may be held to have not differed much from those to which the other refers. It is impossible to hold that the lowest menial servant got one gold paṇa a day besides over 30 *muṣṭis* of corn every day (1024 in a month). If that were so, the lowest menial servants of Kauṭilya's days would have to be supposed to be a hundred times better off than their *confreres* in big cities like Bombay towards the end of the 19th century (when menial servants got from five to ten rupees a *month* without any allowance of grain). Therefore the paṇa in Kauṭilya V. 3 is not of gold. Kauṭilya (in V. 3) says that a king who has a depleted treasury may make payment of salary by giving forest produce, cattle or fields along with small quantities of cash, that if he has undertaken to colonize a waste tract he may make payment of salary in cash only and not by bestowing a village. In connection with this he says that 60 paṇas are to be the equivalent of one āḍhaka of corn (ṣaṣṭivetanasyāḍhakam kṛtvā hiraṇyānurūpam bhaktam kuryāt).¹⁶⁴ An āḍhaka¹⁶⁵ came to only 256 muṣṭis (handfuls) of corn and even in famine times one āḍhaka could not have cost 60 silver paṇas, much less golden ones. In V.