History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.331

v4.c62.331

awarding bodily punishments e. g. if a woman refused to work after receiving the wages he could cut off her thumb (? or bind up her thumb with the index finger so as to form a pair of tongs). The superintendent of agriculture (sītādhyakṣa,¹⁸⁶ II. 24) himself knowing or assisted by those who know the science of agriculture and the Āyurveda (the ancient lore) of trees was to collect at the proper times all kinds of corn, flowers, fruits, vegetables, bulbs, hemp and cotton seeds and to employ slaves, labourers and prisoners who worked to pay off fines they could not pay, to sow seeds on crown lands. In this chapter he makes interesting remarks about the extent of rainfall viz. the rainfall in a *jāṅgala* country (defined above at p. 132) is 16 droṇas, in *anūpa* (very moist) countries 24 droṇas, 13½ droṇas in the Aśmaka country (modern Khandesh and part of Berar), 23 droṇas in the Avanti country (round about modern Ujjain), an immense quantity in the Aparāntas (west coast of India) and the Himālayan regions.