History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.762

v4.c63.762

The question about the payment or non-payment of wages to those whose services are hired for work is dealt with under this title (Nār. IX. 1). According to Bṛ. there⁸²⁶ are three titles of law in which the question of hiring enters, viz. *abhyupetyāśuśrūṣā*, *vetanasyānapākarma* and *svāmipālavivāda*. Manu and Kauṭ. do not treat of the first of these three. Here *vetanasyānapākarma* will be first dealt with, then *abhyupetyāśuśrūṣā* and *svāmipālavivāda* will be separately treated of. All these three topics are concerned with masters and servants or employers and employees. The rules are different according as the contract of service is for a fixed term or for an indefinite period or is for executing a definite piece of work and according as the rate of wages or the hire is fixed beforehand or is not fixed. We have further to remember that the rules are spread over a large period i. e. from about 6th century B. C. to about 500 A. D. (from Gaut. and Āp. to Bṛ. and Kāt.). The rules deal with the liabilities of both masters and servants. Nār. IX. 2 states that the wages agreed upon may be paid at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the work undertaken. But when no wages are settled beforehand Nār. IX. 3, Yāj. II. 194, Kauṭ. III. ⁸²⁷ 13 provide that the (agent of a) trader, the cowherd, the husbandman should receive a tenth part respectively of the profit, of the milk and of the crops. This latter according to the Sm. C. II p. 201 holds good where the crops are raised easily. But Bṛ.