Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c9.246

c9.246

**Free Drinking.** Drinking, however, was permitted free and outside the licensed liquor-shops on occasions of festivals (*utsava-vasantādi-utsaveshu*), social gatherings (*samāja-bandhujana-melaneshu*) and religious worship (*yātrā ishṭadevatāpūjā*), for a period of four days. But if this limit of licence was exceeded, the Excise Superintendent was to impose a daily fine on those who would drink beyond that time (lest 'as workmen, they cause loss of work').