Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c9.215

c9.215

Absence of trade-marks, or tampering with them, was penalised, sometimes with detention or confinement in a special room (*sthāna*) of the Customs Office for three *ghaṭikās* (*ghaṭikāḥ*, meaning *ghaṭikātraya-kāla* as explained by the commentator with the help of the *Kapiñjala-nyāya*). When goods were brought thither, their owners publicly offered them for sale (*etat pramāṇenārgheṇa paṇyamidaṁ kaḥ kretā*), and the tolls were levied on the basis of the prices they realised. In case of prices being pushed up by the bidding of buyers (*kretṛisaṁgharshe mūlya-vṛiddhiḥ*), the excess of the price and the toll were received by the State, while a fraudulent under-statement of the quantity or the price of goods was penalised by the levy of 8 times the proper toll. The same punishment was imposed on merchants showing inferior samples (*hīna-prativarṇakena*) to conceal the true worth of their goods (*nivishṭa paṇyasya bhāṇḍasya*).