Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c9.30

c9.30

The duties on all marketable goods are to be fixed according to their intrinsic value but traders should never be oppressed.¹ In all this there is nothing new. Baudhāyana is slightly more enlightening when he deals with inter-state morality. According to him all is not fair in war. No king should ever use barbed or poisoned weapons. Nor should he strike women, infants, old men, Brāhmaṇas, those who are insane, intoxicated, terrified or who have lost their armour. From this humanitarian rule, however, assassins are excepted.²