Hindu Law and Judicature Part 9

255. There may be a re-sale of goods sold, if the original buyer will not receive them. If loss arise from misconduct of the buyer, he shall bear it.

256. Whatever damage may befal goods by [act of] the monarch, or by accident, shall be the loss of the seller,[345] where he has failed to make delivery on demand.

257. If a person re-sell that which has been sold to another, or sell, as sound, a damaged article; [in either case] the fine shall be double the value [of the article sold].

258. A trader who makes a purchase in ignorance of the rise and fall of prices, must not recede from his bargain; if he do, he shall be fined a sixth [of the price].

259. Traders who carry on business jointly, for profit, shall share the profits and losses, either in proportion to the capital [brought in by each], or according to the contract between them.[346]

260. [A joint trader] who occasions loss [to the partnership] by [engaging in] something which his partner has either prohibited or not sanctioned, or by any negligence, shall make it good: if [on the other hand by his personal exertion] he preserve anything [of the partnership property] from loss, he shall have the tenth of it.[347]

261. The monarch, for fixing the prices, should receive a duty of a twentieth.[348]

If an article of which the sale is prohibited, or one fitting for the monarch[349] [to possess], be sold [without the royal license], it shall be forfeited to the Crown.[350]

262. Whoever declares false weight, or avoids the place where custom is levied, shall be made to pay eight-fold; so he who fraudulently buys or sells.[351]

263. A ferryman levying [toll as though for] land-duties, shall be made to pay a fine of ten _pa?as_.[352]

The same fine is ordained for omission to send invitations to brahma?s of the neighbourhood.[353]

264. On the death of one departed to a foreign country, his male offspring, his maternal kindred, or those more remotely related, shall take the property: in their default, the monarch [succeeds].

265. Let the partners of a man who acts dishonestly exclude him from any share of the profits. Let him who is disabled [to act personally in the partnership business] act by the agency of another. Thus too it is enjoined for [a.s.sociations of] priests[354] farmers, and craftsmen.

266. Capture of a thief by the officer is warranted by [his possession of] the property stolen, or by traces of him, also by his having been an offender previously, or his being an inmate of a house of ill repute.

267. And others there are who may be arrested on suspicion, _viz._, such as conceal their caste, name, &c., also those addicted to gambling, to women, and to drinking, and such as have [betrayed themselves by] a parched mouth in speaking, or a stammering voice;

268. those, moreover, who are inquisitive about others' goods and houses, or who put on a disguise, or who expend [lavishly] although they have no [ostensible] income, or who sell things that have been in use.

269. If one arrested on suspicion of theft do not clear himself, he is to be punished as a thief, being first compelled to make good the property stolen.

270. [The monarch] should compel the thief to make rest.i.tution of the stolen articles, and subject him to [such of] the different corporeal inflictions [as may be proper]: a brahma? [who is a thief] he shall brand and banish the realm.

271. When a murder or theft has occurred, and [the criminal] is not traced beyond the village, blame falls on the village governor; if [he be traced] to the public road, blame falls on the governor of the district; if traced out of the district, the officer charged with pursuit of criminals shall be to blame.

272. The village within whose boundary [the crime is perpetrated]

shall pay; or [that village shall pay] to which track [of the criminal] leads; so, if the track lead to a place within a _krosh_[355] skirting five villages [all shall pay]; so of ten villages.

273. House-breakers,[356] they who steal horses or elephants, murderers by open violence--such shall be impaled.

274. He who purloins [apparel, &c.[357]] shall have a hand cut off; cut-purses,[358] shall have the thumb and fore-finger cut off; for a second offence, a hand and a foot shall be cut off.

275. For theft of goods of trifling, of medium, and of the highest value,[359] the penalty to be inflicted is proportioned to the value of what is stolen. In its determination, place, time, age, and ability, are to be considered.[360]

276. One who knowingly supplies a thief or a murderer with food, shelter, fire, water, counsel, implements, or money, incurs the highest fine.[361]

277. For wounding with weapons, and for causing abortion, the highest fine is ordained; the highest or the lowest for killing a man or a woman.

278. A woman incorrigibly wicked, one who has slain a man, one who has destroyed dams,[362] shall, unless she be in a state of pregnancy, be thrown into [deep] water with a [heavy] stone tied to her.

279. A woman who is a poisoner, or an incendiary, one who has slain her husband, her _guru_, or her child, shall be put to death by bulls, her ears, hands, nose, and lips being cut off.[363]

280. If a man be slain, and it be not known who did the deed, his sons, kindred, wives, also women who are in habits of illicit intercourse, are to be separately and without delay questioned,--as to, whether any quarrel has occurred,

281. whether the deceased was addicted to women, or fond of what is costly, or seeking gain,[364] also with whom he had gone--or, the people in the neighbourhood of the place where the murder occurred shall be examined, by gentle means.

282. Incendiaries of fields, houses, forests, villages, pasture-grounds or granaries, also one who has intercourse with the wife of the king, are to be burned in a straw-fire.

283. A man is to be apprehended for adultery, if [found] with another man's wife in mutual grasping of hair or with recent love-marks, or when both admit [their fault],

284. or [if the man be found] toying with her girdle, with her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her upper garment, her thigh, or her hair, or conversing with her at an unfitting place or hour, or on the same spot with her.[365]

285. The wife, if [so acting] after express prohibition, shall pay one hundred _pa?as_ fine; the man, two hundred _pa?as_: if both have been expressly prohibited [so demeaning themselves], their punishment shall be the same as for adultery.[366]

286. For adultery with a woman of equal cast, a man incurs the highest fine; with a woman of lower cast, the middle fine; with a woman of higher cast, [the penalty is] death,[367] and the woman is to have her ears, &c.[368] cut off.

287. If one make off with a virgin decked out [for the bridal], he shall pay the highest fine; if she be not so circ.u.mstanced, then the lowest fine. Thus it is, if the virgin be of equal cast: if she be of higher cast, [the penalty of] death is ordained.

288. In the case of a virgin consenting and of inferior cast, no offence [is committed]; otherwise, there is a fine.[369] For ravishing her, the man's hand shall be cut off: if the virgin be of the highest cast, [the penalty is] death.

289. Whoso speaks disparagingly of a woman shall forfeit one hundred _pa?as_; but, two hundred, one who brings a false charge against [a woman]. Whoso has carnal knowledge of a brute animal shall forfeit one hundred _pa?as_; if of a lowest cast woman[370] or of a cow, the middle fine.

290. If a man[371] have carnal intercourse with female slaves or servants, or even with common women, [such slaves, &c.] being kept [by those to whom they belong] secluded,[372] he shall pay a fine of fifty _pa?as._

291. For forcing a female slave,[373] it is written, there shall be a fine of ten _pa?as_; if many [men so] attack one slave, each one shall pay twenty-four _pa?as._

292. A public woman who refuses after taking her hire, shall forfeit twice the amount; so, if the man [decline after contracting, yet] he shall pay.

293. Whoso knows a woman unnaturally, or voids his water upon a man, also one who has carnal knowledge of a female mendicant, shall be fined twenty-four _pa?as._

294. [The monarch] shall banish him who goes to a woman of the lowest grade, having branded him with dishonoring emblems: if a Sudra so act, he shall be [cla.s.sed among] the lowest. Death shall be to the man of lowest grade who goes to a respectable woman.

295. Whoso fabricates a royal grant,[374] be it for much or little, or sets free one who has kidnapped a woman, shall pay the highest fine.

296. One who brings dishonor to a brahma? by giving as food what is unfit to be eaten, is amenable to the highest fine; if to a kshattriya, the medium fine; if to a vaisya, the lowest fine; if to Sudra, half the lowest.

297. If one trade with counterfeit gold, or sell tainted meat; three of his members[375] shall be amputated, and he shall pay the highest fine.

298. Damage caused by four-footed animals shall not be borne by their owner, if he have given warning to clear the way: so, with regard to wood, earth, arrows, stones, a man's arm, or any yoked animals.

299. If death be caused by a vehicle through the breaking of the [animal's] nose-bridle, or through breaking of the yoke, or the like, or from its running backwards, the owner is [to be held]

blameless.[376]

300. If the owner of biting or horned animals do not, although able, rescue [a person attacked], he shall pay the lowest fine: but, if there was a cry for help, then, double that fine.

301. He who calls an adulterer, 'thief,' shall be made to pay a fine of five hundred _pa?as_: whoever releases such an one, being bribed thereto,[377] shall be made to pay eight-fold the amount [of the bribe].[378]