Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c8.s1.19

c8.s1.19

Social helpfulness was inculcated as a positive duty not only in exceptional contingencies or calamities, but all through life. In many cases, those who did not come to the help of their fellows in ordinary times, were to be fined a hundred *paṇas*.² A similar spirit of humanity inspired another series of ordinances. Hurts from horned or tusked animals, if traced to any sort of negligence on the part of their owners, should be visited with the first, or double the first amercement. Desertion of a companion in a forest was to be punished with the middle, and, if joined to a threat, with the highest, amercement. Desertion in the course of a journey brought half the first amercement. In the case of these minute regulations, however, it is more than doubtful if they were ever enforced. Riding an animal dedicated to a god, such as a bull or an ox, or even a female calf, meant the high fine of five hundred *paṇas*. Those who drove away such animals earned the first amercement.³