Book 3 (Concerning Law), Chapter XVII: ROBBERY

Translated by R. Shamasastry (1915, public domain), 1915. Public domain.

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SUDDEN and direct seizure (of person or property) is termed sdhasa; fraudulent or indirect seizure (niranvaye ‘pavyayanecha) is theft.
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The school of Manu hold that the fine for the direct seizure of precious stones and superior or inferior raw materials shall be equal to their value. It is equal to twice the value of the articles according to the followers of Usanas.
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But Kautilya holds that it shall be proportional to the gravity of the crime.
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In the case of such articles of small value as flowers, fruits, vegetables, roots, turnips, cooked rice, skins, bamboo, and pots (earthenware) the fine shall range from 12 to 24 papas; for articles of great value such as iron (kdldyasa), wood, roping materials, and herds of minor quadrupeds, the fine shall range from 24 to 48 panas; and for such articles of still greater value as copper, brass, bronze, glass, ivory and vessels, etc., it shall range from 48 to 96 panas. This fine is termed the first amercement.
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For the seizure of such as big quadrupeds, men, fields, houses, gold, gold-coins, fine fabrics, etc., the fine shall range from 200 to 500 panas, which is termed the middle-most amercement.
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My preceptor holds that keeping or causing to keep by force either men or women in prison, or releasing them by force from imprisonment, shall be punished with fines ranging from 500 to 1,000 panas. This fine is termed the highest amercement.
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He who causes another to commit sdhasa after the plans prepared by himself shall be fined twice the value (of the person or property seized). An abettor who employs a hireling to comit sdhasa by promising ‘I shall pay thee as much gold as thou makest use of,’ shall be fined four times the value.
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The school of Brihaspati are of opinion that if with the promise ‘I will pay thee this amount of gold,’ an abettor causes another to commit sdhasa, the former shall be compelled to pay the promised amount of gold and a fine. But Kautilya holds that if an abettor extenuates his crime by pleading anger, intoxication or loss of sense (moham), he shall be punished as described above.
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* Tn all kinds of fines below a hundred panas, the king shall take in addition to the fine 8 per cent more as rúpa and in fines above hundred, five per cent more; these two kinds of exaction, are
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just inasmuch as the people are full of sins on the one hand, and kings are naturally misguided on the other.

Commentary

Book 3 of Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra, Chapter XVII. 10 paragraphs from Shamasastry's 1915 English translation. The Arthaśāstra is a treatise on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy attributed to Kauṭilya (Cāṇakya), advisor to Chandragupta Maurya. Shamasastry's translation, the first into English, was published from his discovery of a 4th-century manuscript at the Government Oriental Library in Mysore. Modern critical editions (Olivelle 2013, Kangle 1965) are more philologically rigorous; we cite them but do not reproduce.