Hindu Law and Judicature Part 8

209. If the threat be by one who has not the power [to carry out his threat], he shall be fined ten _pa?as_; [the threatener] who has the power shall be, in addition, compelled to give surety for the safety of the person [threatened].

210. For abuse by imputation of a crime which would entail loss of cast, the middle fine [shall be exacted]; if of a lesser crime, the lowest fine.

211. If the abuse be directed against one conversant with the three Vedas, against the monarch, or against the G.o.ds, the highest fine [is incurred]; if against a whole cast or a community, the middle fine; if against a village or the realm, the lowest fine.

212. If a person be beaten without witnesses, the case shall be tried by marks, probabilities and public report; not however without some suspicion that the marks may have been falsely contrived.

213. For [defiling by] touching with ashes, mud, or dust, a fine is fixed of ten _pa?as_; for [defiling by] touching with impurities,[305] _scil._ of the heel or of the saliva, double [that fine]:

214. that is, if the parties be on an equality. If [the offence be]

against other men's wives, or against superiors, [then the penalty is]

double; if against inferiors, the half. Should [the aggressors] be insane or intoxicated or the like, there shall not be punishment.

215. Should a limb of one not a brahma? occasion pain to a brahma?, it shall be cut off. If [a weapon] be raised [against one of inferior cast],[306] the lowest fine [is to be paid]; if the weapon be merely handled, then the fine shall be half.[307]

216. But should a hand or a foot be raised, the fine shall be [respectively] ten and twenty _pa?as._ People, however, of any [cast, who lift] weapons against their cast-fellows shall pay the middle fine.

217. For pulling a person by the foot, by the hair, by the clothing, or by the hand, the fine is ten _pa?as_: for inflicting pain by dragging about or by violent handling of the clothes, and for putting the foot upon a person, [the fine is] a hundred _pa?as._

218. He who beats with a stick or the like, short of effusion of blood, shall pay a fine of thirty-two _pa?as_; if blood appear, the fine is double[308]

219. For damaging a hand, a foot, or a tooth, and for cutting the ears or the nose, there is the middle fine: the same for rending open a wound, or for beating a person till he be as one lifeless.

220. For beating [one so that he] cannot stir, or [so that he cannot]

eat, or [so that he cannot] speak, for destroying an eye and the like,[309] for breaking a neck, an arm, or a thigh, [there shall be]

the middle fine.[310]

221. If several unite in beating one person, the fine shall be double[311] that prescribed; whatever property be taken away in the struggle shall be restored, and, in addition, the double fine [imposed].

222. Whoever causes pain to another [by any such means] shall be made to pay the expense of the cure, as well as the regulated fine for the fray.[312]

223. He who batters, rends, breaks or pulls down a wall, shall be made to pay a fine of five, ten or twenty _pa?as_ besides the value.

224. He who casts into a dwelling house any thing hurtful or destructive of life, shall be made to pay, for the first a fine of sixteen _pa?as_, for the second the middle fine.

225. For injury to the smaller sort of cattle, or for shedding their blood, for lopping one of their horns or the like[313] or one of their limbs, one shall pay a fine of two and a half _pa?as_ and upwards.

226. For cutting off the male privy member [of such cattle], or slaying [one], the middle fine, as well as the value [of the animal], shall be paid. For the larger cattle in such cases the fine is double.[314]

227. For cutting down branches, or the trunk, or the entire tree,[315]

of such as re-produce [after mutilation], [also for similar injuries]

to trees which supply food,[316] the fine shall be doubled progressively up from twenty _pa?as_:[317]

228. should the trees be growing where there are memorial erections, or in places for disposal of the dead, or on boundary lines, or in holy places, or in a temple, a double fine [shall be levied]; so, for any famous tree.[318]

229. For cutting brushwood, gra.s.ses, shrubs, climbing plants, ground-spreading creepers, annuals, and herbs, at the places above mentioned, half of the fine is ordained.

230. Forcibly taking away [any thing, though it be] public property, is _sahasa_;[319] the fine for it is double the value [of the property]. [If the crime be,] on denial, [proved,] then, four times the value.

231. He who instigates the commission of _sahasa_, shall pay a double fine, and four-fold if he instigate by promise of reward.

232. He who rails at a venerable person,[320] or who disobeys such an one, he who maltreats his brother's wife,[321] he who fails to give that which he has promised, he who forces a dwelling-house with a seal upon it,[322]

233. he who does harm to his neighbour, or to his kindred, and such like[323]--each of these shall be fined fifty _pa?as_. So is it enjoined.

234. He who, [on the impulse] of his own will [merely], goes to a widow,[324] he who, when there is a cry for help, does not haste [to render it], he who reviles without cause, a _chandala_[325] who touches one of higher cast,

235. he who, when making an oblation to the G.o.ds or to ancestors, feeds Sudras, or _pravrajikas_,[326] he who swears an improper oath, or who does what he has no t.i.tle to do,[327]

236. he who emasculates a bull or smaller animal, who embezzles common property, who destroys the embryo of a female slave,

237. and, among fathers and sons, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, teachers and disciples, if either desert the other, [he or she]

not being an outcast--[in these several instances,] the fine is a hundred _pa?as_.[328]

238. A washerman who wears another's dress shall be fined three _pa?as_; if he sell, let out, pledge, or, when importuned [give it away],[329] ten _pa?as._

239. If, when father and son quarrel, one volunteer to be a witness,[330] the fine is three _pa?as_; but, if [on such an occasion] one offer himself as surety,[331] he shall be fined eight-fold.

240. Whoever falsifies scales, or a royal order, or a measure,[332] or a coin,[333] likewise whoever [knowingly] uses them [so falsified], shall be made to pay the highest fine.[334]

241. A tryer of coin who p.r.o.nounces a false one to be genuine or a genuine one to be false, shall be made to pay the highest fine.

242. One who falsely sets himself up as a physician,[335] shall, [for his malpractice,] if brutes be concerned, pay the first fine--if mankind, the middle fine--but, if royal officers, the highest fine.

243. Whoso imprisons one not deserving of imprisonment,[336] or releases one found worthy of imprisonment or pending his trial,[337]

shall pay the highest fine.

244. He who, in measurement, or [use of] the scales, defrauds [to the extent] of an eighth, shall be made to pay a fine of two hundred _pa?as_, and thus proportionably for a more or less quant.i.ty.

245. He who adulterates[338] medicine, or oily commodities, or salt, or perfumes, or corn, or sugar, or other saleable articles, shall be fined sixteen _pa?as._

246. For making one sort of article to appear to be of another sort, whether it be earthen goods, or skins, or precious stones, or threads, or corn, or wood, or bark of trees, or clothes, a fine [is ordained of] eight-fold the purchase money.

247. For him who changes a covered basket,[339] or who gives in pledge or sells counterfeit drugs in a wrapper,[340] the fines prescribed are,

248. where [the value is] below a _pa?a_ fifty _pa?as_, where [it amounts to] a _pa?a_ one hundred _pa?as_, where to two _pa?as_ two hundred _pa?as_: with increase of value the fine increases.

249. The highest fine is imposed on those who, [although] aware of the rise or fall in prices, combine, to the prejudice of labourers and artists, to create a price [of their own].

250. For traders who combine, by [arbitrarily fixing] an improper price, to impede [the traffic in] any commodity, or to make [an injurious] sale of it,[341] the highest fine is ordained.

251. The price in [transactions of] sale and purchase, daily, is regulated by the monarch;[342] the difference[343] is declared to be the traders' profit.

252. On goods of his own country let a trader clear a profit of five per cent., and ten per cent. on those of another country; provided he make prompt sale of his purchase.

253. [The monarch] is to determine the price, in unison with the wishes of both purchaser and seller; first adding to the cost of the article the expense of bringing it to the market.[344]

254. He who, having received the price of any commodity, fails to deliver it to the buyer, shall be compelled to deliver the article, together with damages [for the detention]; and should the buyer be from foreign parts, then, the foreign profit [shall be added].