Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c8.85

c8.85

The use of liquor was to be rigidly controlled everywhere—in town and country, camps and forts. A licence was essential to its manufacture and sale. Liquor. The liquor trade might be centralised or decentralised "in accordance with the requirements of demand or supply." Illicit dealing to be punished with a fine of six hundred *paṇas*. Its transit from place to place was discouraged. The state, however, was to establish numerous liquor shops at suitable distances from each other. Kautalya would furnish them with beds and seats, and enhance their attraction with scents, garlands of flowers, water and other comforts. But liquor was to be sold only to persons of known character—a rather vague provision—and only in small quantities of a quarter or one kudumba, or a half or one prastha. Unless positively bad, it was never to be sold below a certain price. It was, however, an outrage on humanity to permit bad drink to be distributed to slaves or workmen in lieu of wages, or to be doled out to hogs and beasts. As a rule, liquor had to be consumed within the shops. Drunkards, as soon as they grew tipsy, should be closely watched by spies. Sometimes they would give out secrets. Often they would admit complicity in some crime and find themselves under arrest. Besides the state breweries, there might be private ones on licence. But the former were effectively protected by the extra 5 p.c. toll levied on liquor in the others. In regard to other fermentations, the Superintendent calculated the loss accruing to the king's trade from private enterprise, native and foreign, and determined the amount due to the exchequer from the dealers. The code of temperance was to be relaxed for four days on occasions of festivity, fairs and pilgrimages. The licence fee was not suspended, but an unusual latitude was allowed all round.¹