History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.20.5

v4.c63.20.5

that raise the prices beyond those fixed by the superintendent of commerce for local commodities and for foreign produce. In IV. 3 Kaut. provides for measures against such calamities as fire, floods, pestilential diseases, famine, rats, tigers, serpents and prescribes a fine of twelve paṇas for catching or injuring cats and mongooses employed to destroy rats. In IV. 4 Kauṭ. prescribes the measures that the officer called samāhartṛ has to take to protect the subjects against those who prey upon the people secretly by employing foul means. He has to employ spies under various disguises to find out the honesty or corruption of officers in the villages, of superintendents, of judges, of magistrates and witnesses and the punishment in these cases is generally banishment. Kauṭilya IV. 5 deals with the detection of young men inclined to robbery and adultery by the employment of spies and agents *provocateurs* in the guise of ascetics and persons reputed to possess miraculous powers. The Kauṭilīya IV. 6 and 7 respectively describe the seizure of criminals on suspicion or in the very act itself and examination in cases of sudden death. Kauṭ. IV. 8 speaks of questioning in the presence of the wronged party of the witnesses of the accused, whether they are his relatives or total strangers, as regards the country, the caste, the family, the name, occupation, property, friends and residence of the accused and of the application of torture to the accused to elicit an admission of guilt.