Studies in Ancient Hindu Polity (Based on the Arthashastra of Kautilya), Vol. I c14.s1.34

c14.s1.34

¹ The exceptions under (i) seem to contemplate such cases as this :—If A promises B to pay a certain sum of money in consideration of his informing a police officer of a burglary that is being committed in A's house, the contract cannot be impeached on the ground that it was made at night. पूर्व्वरात्र व्यवहारिणः—पूर्व्वरात्र is the time from dusk to midnight. The use of the word in this sense occurs in Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, Kausika Sūtra, Kātyāyana Śrauta-Sūtra, Mahābhārata, Pāṇini II, i, 45, commentary (see Monier Williams). Those who usually transact business during this time are therefore पूर्व्वरात्रव्यवहारिणः. But who exactly are meant is not clear. If we take the meaning to be any persons who enter into contract during पूर्व्वरात्र then an objection may be raised that if such a case had been contemplated some such sweeping rule as the following would not have been laid down, viz. that any नक्तकृत contracts are void; the general rule could then well have been that all अपररात्रकृत contracts are void. Again, if all contracts be allowed up to midnight, why they cannot be allowed, say, a few minutes after midnight would be difficult to explain. Removal of secrecy about the contracts is the general policy, and therefore if all sorts of contracts are allowed during the first half of the night, they will offend against and for the time negative this policy. So it is most probable that only a limited set of persons is the object of consideration of the Government in this case, in view of the hardship that they will otherwise be put to, and therefore पूर्व्वरात्र व्यवहारिणः has most likely a technical meaning and refers to a limited group of persons.