Manu Dharma Shastra
1. A king's responsibilities include overseeing the loans and mortgages,
general sales, genuine ownership of the goods sold (checking the fake
ownership), regular payments of salaries to the employees, disputes between
employers and employees (a kind of principal-agent analysis). (A2-M1)
2. A king should never collect anything from the public that is not due to him
even if he is in a poor state. But he should collect everything, however small
that is genuinely due to him, even though he is already rich (Fairness
principle). (A2-M2)
3. Having collected the taxes, if a king does not protect his people, he would
go to hell. (We have been experiencing the fact that people pay taxes, but no
public works of equivalent worth get done.) (A2-M3)
4. Commodity sales should not be out of the stipulated zones, and beyond
stipulated times. Sales accounts should not be tampered. Against these crimes,
tax would be enhanced eight times. King should monitor incoming/outgoing goods,
changes in their volumes, and the extent of sales before levying the taxes.
Every five days, otherwise every two weeks, he should check the business
pattern. The tools of measurements (such as balances, scales, weights,
containers etc.) should be checked every six months. Every day he should check
the accounts, transport, mines and the treasury. (A2-M4)
5. Certain services such as crossing canals and rivers should be provided free
to certain categories, such as pregnant ladies, ascetics, teachers (only Brahmins
in those days) and kids. (This corresponds to our current subsidisation
programmes.) (A2-M5)
6. If certain categories of people are unable to find employment, the king
himself should employ them and bear their living. (This corresponds to the
current employment guarantee programmes.) (A2-M6)
7. If a boat gets submerged due to the fault of the boatman, the boatman should
be made to compensate loss of goods, if any. (It is a compensation arrangement
to avoid irresponsibility of the service personnel.) (A2-M7)
8. If someone encroaches on the property of another person, the real owner
loses the right of ownership if he does not protest within 10 years of
encroachment. If someone has been stealthily enjoying others' property, it does
not amount to that he is the real owner. (In our times too this is a social
malady involving land-grabbing both in rural and urban areas.) (A2-M8)
9. Brahmins and Kshatriyaas should not collect interest for the loans extended
by them--unless some special situations force them to do so to keep up ethics.
But on such occasions they should keep the interest rate very low. (A2-M9)
Aapstamba Dharma Sutraas
1. Brahmins should generally not indulge in trading. In dire circumstances if
it becomes imperative, they may trade in only those commodities which are not
prohibited for them. Such prohibited commodities are service personnel, salt,
gur, milk and drinks, coloured clothes, perfumes, food, food grains
particularly rice and sesame, skins, old cows, gum, seeds, intoxicants, weaponry
and fruits of his penance. Not even barter trade is permitted in these
commodities. However, bartering in the case of food, personnel, perfumes and
education is permitted. (Perhaps implicit in this is that a Brahmin should give
away these things without a charge expecting no returns of any sort. However,
he may take food for food, servants for servants, and so on. He may teach
something to others to learn something else in return.) (A2-A1)
2. Brahmin in exceptional circumstances may sell products such as fruits,
provided they are grown in his own orchard and farm. He may even sell firewood.
However, he should stop any trading once he gets a job appropriate to him.
(A2-A2)
3. A king should impose taxes fairly. He should not collect taxes from
traditionalists, sincere devotees, all women, kids, students of residential
schools, and servants working in the houses of upper castes, blind, dumb, deaf,
sick patients, and ascetics who are unable to get offerings from the public.
(A2-A3)
4. Property should not be divided between a husband and his wife. (In ancient
times, there were no possession or ownership documents. Yet the concept of
ownership of property prevailed which in principle belonged to the head of the
household. Since divorce was not approved, the female could never claim alimony
or share of the property. Writing up documents (as saasanams, i.e., royal
orders) came over later, and much recently the concept of registrations. In
India, particularly in rural areas, even now many households don't possess proper
documents for the properties they hold, including farms they cultivate and
houses they live in). (A2-A4)
5. Knowledge of anything that has not been covered in these sutraas may be
obtained by consulting womenfolk of all castes and sticking to the traditions.
(It denotes the importance given to the women who are the real carriers of
ethical traditions from generation to generation.) (A2-A5)
Yaajnavalkya Smrutee
Mitaaksharaa by Vijnaanesvara in 12th century AD is most notable among
commentaries on Yajnavalkya Smrutee and the British judges used to rely on it
to interpret and determine the Indian issues in courts.Even recently while
interpreting 'animal-driven vehicle' for
claiming/granting the state subsidy in Uttar Pradesh, a bench of the Supreme Court
took help of the ages-old Mimansa Rules. The Hindu newspaper report (December
18, 2007);
"Mimansa Rules of Interpretation (MRI) were still relevant and could be
effectively used in courts whenever there was a difficulty or ambiguity in
interpreting a principle or to understand the meaning of a word, the Supreme
Court has held.
'It may be mentioned that the MRI were our traditional principles of
interpretation laid down by Jaimini whose Sutras were explained by Shabar,
Kumarila Bhata, Prabhakar, etc. These Mimansa Principles were regularly used by
our great jurists such as Vijnaneshwar (author of Mitakshara), Jimutavahana
(author of Dayabhaga), Nanda Pandit (author of Dattak Mimansa) etc. whenever
they found any conflict between the various Smritis or any ambiguity or
incongruity therein. There is no reason why we cannot use these principles on
appropriate occasions,' (a Bench consisting of Justices A K Mathur and
Markandey Katju)
'It is a matter of deep regret that Mimansa principles have rarely been used in
our law courts. It is nowhere mentioned in our Constitution or any other law
that only Maxwell's Principles of Interpretation can be used by the court. We
can use any system of interpretation which helps us solve a difficulty. In
certain situations Maxwell's principles would be more appropriate, while in
other situations the Mimansa principles may be more suitable.
Since we have used a Mimansa principle in this judgment we thought it necessary
to briefly mention about the Mimansa principles.' ...." (The Hindu,
18.12.2007)
Yajnavalkya Smrutee: continued:
1. There is a vast chapter called "Runaadaana prakaranam" in this
treatise, dealing with loans and the rates of interest to follow according to
the risks involved, and who would clear off the debt in case the loanee
expires, and so on. Due to space constraints, our discussion is limited to only
the following points.
(a) If the loaner with any mischievous intention does not accept the amount
(principal and the interest) which the loanee is willing to clear off, the
amount may be deposited with an intermediary; and from that day onwards further
interest need not be calculated. (A2-Y1a)
(b) If a loan is incurred for maintenance of the family, then as long as the
family property is not divided, the head of the household is responsible to
clear off the loan. In case the head expires or goes away abroad, then all the
shareholders of that person's property become liable. (A2-Y1b)
(c) Unless the loan incurred by either husband or sons is for family maintenance,
a female does not become liable to clear it off. Similarly, the father in the
case of loans incurred by his sons, and husband in the case of loans incurred
by his wife do not become liable. (A2-Y1c)
(Naarada Smrutee that defines four kinds of interest rates: a rate
if the interest is cleared on daily basis, another rate if it is monthly
repayment, a higher rate which is voluntarily offered by the loanee, and a rate
applicable to the already accumulated interest.) (A2-Y1d)
-2. chapter "Asvaamivikraya prakaranam" : If someone finds that a
thing of his own was sold away by some other, the real owner can claim it. The
person who buys such goods in black market or out of stipulated time (i.e.,
late in the night) too becomes a culprit in these dealings. The seller should
be handed over to appropriate authorities. If the buyer realises that he bought
stolen goods, he may himself hand over the goods to the real owner, in case the
seller ran away abroad, or too much time elapsed. (A2-Y2)
3. chapter "Kreetaanusaya prakaranam" and "Abhyupetyaa susrushaa
prakaranam", issues related to returning the goods once bought to the
seller due to bad quality, the accepted percentage losses while making jewelry
and other metallic articles, and refusal to carry out a job having accepted to
do (principal-agent problem), etc. were discussed. If the agent was forced to
become a servant, or he was kidnapped and got sold to the principal by thieves,
king should see that the agent is set free. In the present times, this feature corresponds
to the problem of bonded labour, child labour and young girls kidnapped for
prostitution purposes. (A2-Y3)
4. chapter, "Saahase praasangika prakaranam" deals with the
punishments given for cheating in the trade either by fault weighing, measuring
or adulteration. Two examples are as follows. If the cheating comes to about
one-eighth of the total, a fine of 200 coins, and beyond that pro-rata, should
be imposed on the seller. If articles such as medicines, oils, salt, perfumes,
paddy, gur are adulterated, a fine of 16 coins should be imposed. (The problem
of cheating never gets outdated!) (A2-Y4a)
The chapter also discusses administered prices, price-wars, forming cartels and
collusions -which is the most relevant problem of imperfect markets even today.
‘Even after knowing that certain level of price was stipulated by the king, if
some of the traders (including artisans) group together and violate that price
level, and also if such a group sells the goods at a price that becomes
disadvantageous to other traders who are not members of the group, the king
should severely punish them’ (A2-Y4b). In case such a cartel plays with their
own price setting (raising or lowering) in the face of competition from the
goods arrived from abroad, such a cartel should be severely punished. (A2-Y4c)
Though the price is daily stipulated by the king, the king is supposed to set
it at profitable level for the traders. ‘In the case of perishable domestic
goods the profit rate could be five percent, whereas if the goods are imported
the rate could be ten percent. In the case of fixing the price for imported
goods, incidental expenses related to bringing the goods from abroad, locally
payable taxes, and return travel costs etc. must be taken care of. And the
finally set price must be to the advantage of both the sellers and buyers.’
(A2-Y4d)
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