Payments on Delivery, or Kauṭalya's Prayāma - (Documents from Nepal.

6)
Author(s): Bernhard Kolver
Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 38, No. 1 (1995), pp. 75
-90
Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632752
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 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY, OR KAUTALYA'S PRAYAMA-
(Documents from Nepal. 6.)

BY

BERNHARD KOLVER
(Leipzig)

Introduction
In manuscript sources of Nepalese public accounts from the Malla
period, i.e. prior to 1769, one sometimes meets with a seemingly minor, yet
thoroughly irritating problem, viz., calculations apparently not conforming
to the rules of elementary arithmetics. The present paper will present two
cases and identify the nature of the deviation, which turns out to derive
from a term in the Kautaliya that is not perfectly understood. As is often
with fiscal terms and usage, this fact is not without its implications for our
picture of the methods and mechanisms of the administration of a Hindu
state.
The irregularity in calculations is documented at greater length than will,
perhaps, be thought necessary to prove the point. This is because calcula-
tions in documents from the Malla period are a bit shaky at times, 1) and
before discussing what at first sight is an anomaly, it is surely advisable to
establish it actually does exist.
? 1. DOCUMENTI. The first example comes from a manuscript 2) listing the
wages paid to various artisans who built a bridge in Panauti,3) a small
town to the east of the Kathmandu Valley' at the time in question (which
is N.S. 828, i.e. A.D 1708), it belonged to the Kingdom of Bhaktapur
In itself, the manuscript is of considerable interest: by means of the driest
of figures, it gives us an idea how one solved what was after all no minor
feat of engineering. And since other materials from the Kathmandu collec-

1) The 44 figures of Table I (one of whlch-A15-is incorrect) are balanced by four

others, listed in Note 7, where some mistake, clerical or arithmetical, would seem to have
occurred. A margin of errors of around 10% may be thought uncomfortably large in what,
after all, are justifications of government expenditure; still, this leaves us with approximately
90% which turn out to be correct on the theory here proposed. This ought to be sufficient
for an argument-all the more so since there is the analogous case from another document
discussed below, ?3
2) This is Ms.1-1689, NGMPP Reel No. A 1261/4 from the NATIONALARCHIVES,
Kathmandu, dated N.S.828; other sections of the same ms. are dated N.S.833.
3) For a description of contemporary Panauti, see the highly interesting study by V
BARRE, P BERGER, L. FEVEILE, G. TOFFIN, Panauti. Une ville au Nepal. Paris 1981. The bridge
is entered on the map, p. 53.

? E.J Brill, Leiden, 1995 JESHO 38,1

76 BERNHARD KOLVER

tions contain data about prices of elementary commodities, or luxury goods,

or fees for rituals, it will eventually be possible to form a fairly exact idea
of the value the actual sums stood for. 4)
Even within the same professional group, artisans did not receive a
uniform renumeration.5) Variation is considerable: with carpenters where it
ranged from between 4 and 7 dam per day, the distribution being 1%
at 7, 81.5% at 6, 12.7% at 5 and 4.7% at 4 dam per diem. Brickmakers
fell into two groups, with 85% drawing the 6 which formed the standard
for carpenters and masons, and 15% receiving only two: the latter probably
is the wage for the 'boys' (moca) employed. 6) Apart from cash, the workers
received their food: the ms. contains exact day-by-day listings of the various
kinds of food and the quantities issued.
It is not social history, however, which occupies us at present, but the
technique of accounts or, to be exact, what at first sight seems a recurring
error in multiplications: the accounts credit labourers with wages which in
most cases are fractionally higher than those which were their due.
A selection of facts is assembled in the following table. 7) Its first three col-
umns repeat the data of the manuscript: for the sake of brevity, I am dispen-
sing with the workers' names and have given current numbers instead. The
fourth column converts payments into the lower of the two currency units
then in use, viz., into dam 120 of which become one mohar.The fifth column
in a sense in conjectural: it relates payments to the number of days. And
this is where the problem lies. When dividing the results of Col. IV by the
number of days, we find odd and varied fractions instead of an overall
uniform quotient: Worker All seems to have obtained 6.045 dam per day,
A24, 6.05, B5, an even 6. This does not look likely. Hence I have taken the
nearest integer to be the actual daily wage. At the present stage this of
course is an arbitrary assumption, and in justification, I can only point to
the results of actual calculations: these added fractions of a dam (a) do not
form a constant, and (b) cannot be paid out in the currency then employed;

4) It allows us, e.g., to gauge the approximate value of the sums mentioned in a second
document presently to be referred to, vlz., the contributions at King Bhfupatindramalla's
death.
5) It is not clear whether labourers were enlisted, or whether they worked under some
form of corvee.
6) The same distinction of 6 dam for adults vs. 2 for boys is found in the blcdhcontributions
mentioned below, ?3.
7) The manuscript standardizes records so as to follow a fixed pattern: Name-Number
of days-Total disbursed. As a specimen, these are the three first entries (from fol. Iv, lines
2-3): vzsnusimhnu 224 mo 11.25 dam 5 I hdku hnu 237 mo 11. 75 dam 23 I ma.mjusimhnu 198
mo 9.75 dam 27 I
 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY 77

Table I

SUM ENTERED IN MS.

DAYS mohar dam TOTAL RATE ARITHMETICAL DIFFERENCE
in dam PER TOTAL in dam (dam)
DIEM
I II III IV V VI VII

A. Carpenters (karmi)
1 224 11.25 5 1355 6 1344 11
2 237 11.75 23 1433 6 1422 11
3 198 9 75 27 1197 6 1188 9
4 188 9.25 27 1137 6 1128 9
5 173 8.5 26 1046 6 1038 8
6 160 8 8 968 6 960 8
7 160 8 8 968 6 960 8
8 137 6.75 18 828 6 822 6
9 151 7.5 13 913 6 906 7
10 141 7 13 853 6 846 7
11 155 7 75 7 937 6 930 7
12 151 7.5 13 913 6 906 7
13 139 5 75 10 700 5 695 5
14 143 7 25 865 6 858 7
15 127 6.25 10 760 6 762 -2
16 140 7 7 847 6 840 7
17 147 7.25 19 889 6 882 7
18 155 7 75 7 937 6 930 7
19 109 3.5 19 439 4 436 3
20 177 8.75 20 1070 6 1062 8
21 168 8.25 26 1016 6 1008 8
22 137 6.75 18 828 6 822 6
23 132 6.5 18 798 6 792 6
24 160 8 8 968 6 960 8
25 128 5.25 15 645 5 640 5
26 121 5 10 610 5 605 5
27 48 2.75 8 338 7 336 2
28 107 3.5 11 431 4 428 3
B. Masons (lohamkarmi)
1 59 2.75 26 356 6 354 2
2 42 2 14 254 6 252 2
3 37 1.75 13 223 6 222 1
4 45 2.25 2 272 6 270 2
5 19 0 75 24 114 6 114 0
6 23 1 19 139 6 138 1
7 18 34 34 1.88 34 0O
8 20 40 40 2 40 0O
78 BERNHARD KOLVER

C. Brickmakers (avala)
1 99 4.75 28 598 6 594 4
2 99 4.75 28 598 6 594 4
3 65 3.25 3 393 6 390 3
4 91 4.5 10 550 6 546 4
5 91 4.5 10 550 6 546 4
6 21 1 7 127 6 126 1
7 33 1.5 19 199 6 198 1
8 33 1.5 19 199 6 198 1

there was no coin valued at the twentieth part of a dam, and a bonus of one
sixth of a daily wage, paid out every twenty days or so, would not seem a
considerable inducement. We shall see the added fractions stem from a
practice only indirectly connected with the wages obtained by workers. The
last column but one is the result of multiplying this hypothetical daily wage
with the number of days-i.e. it gives the sums which, if the daily wage has
been correctly established, ought to have been paid out. One sees the sums
of Col. IV and Col. VI hardly ever tally exactly: the numerical difference
is spelt out in column VII.

DOCUMENT I, N.S. 828: Wages of Selected Artisans, Discrepancies in

Calculations. 8)

The table shows the sums actually entered into the account (Col. IV) are
nearly always slightly higher than the product of wages and days (Col. VI).
How to account for this?
?2. There can be no doubt as to the solution of the arithmetical part of
the puzzle: the full moharseems to be calculated at 121 dam, or in more com-
prehensible terms, there is a dam added to every full moharof each sum. The
three lohamkarmiswith lowest wages (B5, B7, B8) as it were, clinch the mat-
ter: with them, the sums calculated tally with the sums paid out, and all
three of them amount to less than a mohar

8) Apart from A 15 of the list, four items which do not tally with.the above conclusions
have been omitted from the above Table. These are three karmrsand one dvala: (1) 195 days,
payment 8 mo 18 dam; (2) 148 days, at 7 mo 26 dam; (3) 50 days at 2.5 mo 1 dam; (4)-the
dvala-100 days and 5 mo 15 dam. Mistakes in calculation are not rare in the kind of record
under discussion, and their reason needs often remains conjectural: not all of them are as
obvious as the mason B7 who apparently did not obtain the wages for one day, or by a scribal
mistake was entered at 18 days rather than 17
 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY 79

?3 DOCUMENTII. On an earlier occasion, we had noted what at first sight

looks like the inverse case: this was when dealing with the contribution paid
to the Bhaktapur Royal Palace in N.S. 842 upon the death of King
Bhupatlndramalla that went under the name of bzcdh (the etymological
equivalent of skt. vtcara-), a kind of condolence levy 9) The document which
records them10) is divided by the main settlements that made up the
kingdom, and proceeds to list the various chiefs of households one by one,
with their contributions entered against the respective names. The sums
involved range between a maximum of 6 and a minimum of 2 dam per
household which looks very much like one daily wage of the N.S. 828
manuscript.
Its calculations-and those of other manuscripts in the same bundle-
again showed an irregularity To repeat specimens of the evidence:

Table II

SUM OF CONVERSION IN MS. ACTUAL DIFFERENCE

MS. ENTRIES mohar dam dam

126 1 7 127 -1
170.5 1 51.5 171.5 -1
144 1 25 145 -1
183 1.5 4 184 -1
171 1 52 172 -1

DOCUMENT II, N.S. 842: Conversions of Payments

The difference in all cases is one dam, only this time it is subtracted rather
than added, i.e. the full moharwas reckoned at 119 rather than 120 dam. I)

9) For details and facsimiles of relevant folios, see B. K6lver and Thakur Lal Manandhar,
"An assessment from Malla Bhaktapur," ZentralastatzscheStudien 17 Wiesbaden 1984, pp.
118ff. The above Table reproduces the data of p. 132.
10) NATIONAL ARCHIVES, Kathmandu, Ms. No. 3-58; NGMPP Reel No. A610/3.
11) Tills principle of having units of measurement not absolutely fixed, but subject to a
certain degree of vanation which depended upon kinds of objects was in Nepal not confined
to money or merchandise. A cubit normally consists of 24 angulas. In certain Buddhist con-
texts, it was to be 25: tatra tdvatpramdnambodhzsattvudnm svena angulipramdnenasatam vtmsatyot-
taram/ buddhdndmpaicavtmsatyottaram(quoted from Hara Prasad Sastri, A Catalogueof Palm-leaf
and SelectedPaper Manuscripts, 2. Calcutta 1915, p. 41). The theory was actually applied to
the Svayambhunath stiipa: see my Re-building a Stupa, Bonn, 1992, Chapter 3.1.4.
80 BERNHARD KOLVER

?4. There is a very obvious question which now emerges, viz., what could
have been the reason for this surcharge or diminution, who paid for it, who
obtained it, and why.
To summarize the occasions when it arose: the two documents show it
applied in what could be called instances diametrically opposed. In I, it was
paid when government disbursed money; in II, it was added to sums which
presumably went to the royal family In other words, the charge apparently
came into effect under two conditions: (a) when money changed hands and
(b) when the court was involved in the transaction.
?5. The explanation would seem to lie in a term employed by the
Arthasastra'2) which commentators and translators are at a loss to explain,
viz., the praydma- of Kautalya 2.7.2. and 2.19.24. In spite of its mor-
phological and etymological transparency (pra-yam is 'to give'), the term is
rarely attested and not well understood.
In the Arthasastra, it is first met with in an enumeration of the various
items which are to be entered in official records, 2.7.2: atra karmdntdndm
dravyaprayogavrddhiksayapraydmavyadjyogasthdna-vetanavzstipramdnam niban-
dhapustakasthamkdrayet'There, he shall have entered into the record books
of the department . of completed transactions: the extent of goods lent and
(their) interest, 13) of increase or decrease, of the prayama-(and) the vydjt, of
the ?place of utilization (MEYER, uncertain), of wages and the corvee.'
Of the two words left untranslated, vydji is tolerably well attested in the
Arthasastra, which is why the attempt to review its meaning will form the
beginning of the discussion. KANGLE usually renders it by 'surcharge'
which no doubt it is, the only question being its nature and function. For
the time being, we shall keep to his gloss (but see ?5, end).
From 2.25.40, we learn it was raised from 'measures and money',
mdnahzranyayoh.2.16.10 tells us how it was calculated: sodasabhdgomdnavydji,
vzmsatibhdgas tuldmdnadmganzyapanyanamekddasabhdgahthe 'surcharge' in
measures of capacity is the sixteenth part, the measure by scales is the twen-
tieth part, 14) with kinds of merchandise to be counted it is the eleventh
part. 15)
12) The Arthasastrais quotedfromKangle'sedition: TheKautalyaArthasastra (ed. and
transl.by) R.P Kangle. 1. A criticaleditionwith a glossary Bombay1969. 2: An English
translationwith critical and explanatorynotes. Bombay 1972. (Universltyof Bombay
Studiesin Sanskrit,Prakritand Pali. 1-2.). Meyer of courseis J.J. Meyer, Das altzndische
BuchvomWelt-undStaatsleben. DasArthafastradesKautaliya. Repnnt. Graz 1977
13) Thus translatedin accordancewith 2.8.7
14) The constructionis a bit odd: haplographyfor tulamndnndm, i.e. 'one twentiethwith
(goods)measuredby scales'?
15) In the introductionto Yajniavalkya2.254, to be quotedpresently,the Mitaksaracites
and explainsNaradawho distinguishesbetweensix kindsof merchandisenot handedover.
 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY 81

In his discussion of this concept, MEYER has found harsh words for the
state and its greed, without perhaps making due allowance for the fact that
in the Arthasastra model it is the state which itself undertook to trade in
essential commodities; the vyadjwas one of the means how it recovered its
cost which is why it is counted among the kinds of income of the
magazine, kosthdgdra-,2.15.11.
For items to be measured, we have just heard this charge ran to 6.25%
This tallies with the figures given in 2.19.29 where a dronahas 200 palas in
government measurements (ayamdnam), while in measurements for trade
(vydvahdrikam)it has 187.5 palas only. The 5% rate which 2.16.10 had
ordained for things weighed is applied to several kinds of goods: to salt
(2.12.28 etc.), to panzacoins (2.12.26); it was even levied on fines that
exceeded the sum of 100 panas (3.17 15).
There are two instances of the vydji which further clarify the picture as
it has emerged so far.
(a) 2.6.22 comes from the long list of sources of state income and deals
with those realized from trade. vikrayepanydndmarghavrddhirupajd, mdnon-
mdnavisesovydji, krayasamgharsevdrghavrddhihIty ayah 'In a sale, the growth
accruing 16) in prices of wares, the 'surcharge' according to the peculiar pro-
perties of what is measured and weighed, 17) or the growth in prices at com-
petition in buying-these are income, (too).' The passage is obviously
meant to ensure a proper evaluation of government stock which, we are
told, is to include increases due to rising demand and to competition and
the 'surcharge'. It would be the trade margin government realizes at the
moment of sale, viz., the percentage deduced when government property
was turned into a marketed commodity
(b) Finally, there is Kaut. 2.19.43 which runs dvdtrzmsadbhdgas taptavydji
sarpisah, catuhsastibhdgas tailasya: 'The heatedsurchargeis a thirty-second part for
clarified butter, one sixty-fourth for sesame oil' The idea behind it, the
translators tell us, is fairly clear: there always will be part of the substance
bought which sticks to a measuring device when goods are meted out: and

The first three contain an exact repetition of the list Kautalya 2.16.10: wares which are
'counted' (ganttam:fruits of the betel-nut tree etc., kramukaphalddt),
others which are weighed
(tulimam, 'such as gold, musk, saffron etc.', kananakastuirfkurikumddi),and as such are
measured (meyam, rice etc., idlyddz).
16) upaja.On the strength of 2.29.8 and 11, Kangle (transl., p. 79, note) thinks the word
generally refers to livestock. There is no reason to assume this is the case in the present
instance: what is meant is the increase in the value of stored goods which will accrue through
the passage of time, such as those of grain, which the state obtained by way of taxes after
the harvest, when prices were low
17) i.e. According to the rates explained in 2.16.10, as modified by 2.19 43.
82 BERNHARD KOLVER

the surcharge is meant to indemnify the buyer-no matter whether it is the

state or a private individual. (We shall have occasion to revert to this.)
But what is a 'heatedsurcharge,taptavyaji?KANGLE(p. 137) takes it to mean
'a surcharge for heating', which in a sense re-phrases MEYER'S
'Vergiitungsgebiihr bei Erhitztem' (p. 162): they think of the viscosity of
the objects sold, which of course works out against the buyer's interest;
when heated, the viscosity is reduced, and the 'surcharge' can be reduced
accordingly. 18)
This I confess I find hard to believe. Is it really conceivable for clarified
butter and oil to have been heated at sales? Would not the costs and labour
of this process be equal to, or rather outweigh, the loss to the buyer which
was caused by their resistance to flow? And who would care to send a buyer
through the crowds of an Indian market with a pot of hot oil in his hands?
taptahema-, ?riipa[ka]-, ?tdmra- 'heated (i.e. purified) gold, silver, copper'
(PW): i.e. materials which had beenheated, the result rather than the pro-
cess. Should we not, on the strength of these analogies, say the passage
speaks of measures made from metal, which of course were 'heated' in the
course of manufacture? The normal Arthasastra measures of capacity were
'made of dry, hard wood' (suskasaraddrumayam,2.19.34)-for fatty
substances, a solution much less satisfactory than metal. 'The surcharge for
metal (vessels)', then, seems to be what is meant by taptavydji.Their surface
is smooth, and thus the 'surcharge'-if it was really meant to compensate
the buyer-could be reduced. On the other hand, in all instances so far dis-
cussed it was the state which actually collected the vydji. There seems to be
no reason why we should not think clarified butter and oil were treated the
same way
Taking taptavyadjto refer to a metal container would explain another
detail. Vessels used for measuring have fixed prices which are specified in
2.19.36-39. According to 2.19.37, 'the prices of measures for liquids etc. are
twice as much' (duigunamrasddfnadm manamulyam).KANGLE(Transl., p. 137)
says this was because they necessarily included the 'heap', sikhd (presently
to be discussed), which of course implies a greater volume. 19) No doubt it

18) One notes for clarified butter, it is exactly half of what was prescribed for the trade
measures of capacity, and the rate of sesame oil is again half of that.
19) This view drew support from the supposed meaning of 2.19.35 rasasya tu suraydh
puspaphalayostusdagdrdnamsudhayas'ca sikhmadnamdvtgunottardvrddih 'However, in the case of
liquids, wine, flowers and fruits, husk and charcoal, and lime, the measure of the top-heap
is an increase that is double' (Kangle), '... steigt die Mehrung zum Doppelten der
Haufungsnorm hmauf' (Meyer). I do not understand this rendering.
What is it that holds the series together? Surely not common properties referring to heap-
ing: blossoms can be piled up high, liquids, not at all. Hence, it can only be a convention which
 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY 83

does-but the increase alone scarcely justifies doubling the price: 20) the
metal vessels also were more costly to produce.
By now, the nature of the vydat will have become tolerably clear:
apparently it was something like a tax on the turnover, first and foremost
to be paid when goods were sold by the state. 21) It took the form of a reduc-
tion in the bulk of goods actually conveyed (which is why 'trade measures'
differ from those of 'government').
The rate of the reduction depended on the nature of the commodity.
Perhaps compensation for reductions of quantities caused by the methods
of weighing or measuring was one of the factors which went into its making:
we cannot say The 10% subtracted with goods sold by pieces, though, and
the surcharge on fines clearly show this compensation, if there was a stage
when it was a decisive factor, no longer was an essential component at the
time when the Arthasastra was compiled.
As to its function, the text, alas, tells us nothing. It would not seem
beyond conjecture for all that: the Arthasastra has a marked tendency to
recover costs at the places where they arose, and the storage of goods and
regulation of markets required quite an elaborate machinery. The early
history of the term is unfortunately not apparent; if it really is to be derived
from vi + aj-, it would be a remarkable parallel to the disagzo.
?6 In preparation to turning to the prayama-, it will be useful to consider
a very interesting remark by the commentary Cj. In explaining the context

is fixed in the passage.With liquids,we are on "firm ground" it is obviouslyonly an

antahsikhd measurethat will do: sikhdmdnam,then, will meanjust that, 'a measurewith (i.e.
including)the heap' The last two wordsI take to be the next injunction,regulatingthe
increasein priceto be demandedwhensuchgoodsare beingsold, vrddhi- in the senseof the
arghavrddhi- of 2.6.22 etc. This wouldallowus to translate'Withliquids,however,..., (one
is to use) a measure(including)the heap:the increase(in price)is twicebeyond(the usual
rate)'-i.e. threetimesas much?Foralcoholicbeverages,heavyexcisedutiesarereasonable;
so is a heavy surchargefor perishablegoods, such as fruit and flowersare.
20) Charges for authorizedvessels do not increase in the same proportionas their
volumes:the progressionby volumeis 1 4 16 64, that of correspondingprices, 1 6
12 20.-The biggerantahsikha measuresof 2.19.34 apparentlyweresold at the samerate
as the smallerones whichhad 'the last quarteron top' 2.19.36.
21) This is quiteclose to Breloer's'Gebiihr',i.e. fee (Cf. B. Breloer,Staatsverwaltungim
altenIndien1. Finanzverwaltung
und Wirtschaftsfiihrung
Leipzig 1934, pp. 228, 396). The facts
are as it were summed up in 2.15.11 where the vyadjis, inter alia, defined as
tulamdnantaram-an expressionnot easilytranslatedbecauseof the ambiguityof "antara-one
couldsay 'whatis differentfrom/beyond(the quantitymetedout by) scalesand measures'
or 'whatis includedin...' The translations
describethe processunderdifferentaspects:'dif-
ferentfrom' takes the weightsand measuresas absolutes;'included'takes the levy as a
necessarypartof the transaction.The factualmeaning,though,is the same in eithercase:
it is to be imposedwhen goodsare handedover to the buyer. In substance,then, the rule
is identical with that of 2.6.22: mdnonmdnavseso
vyadt:see above, p. 81.
84 BERNHARD KOLVER

of 2.16.10, he says sodasaprasthanvikrnnanahekamznvartayet, krfndnah sap-

tadasakamadhikamgrhntydt'the vendor of 16 prasthas (i.e. when selling: the
agent is the state) should hold one back; when buying, he should receive a
seventeenth (prastha) in addition (to the sixteen).' KANGLEthinks this
'unlikely' (Transl., p. 128): I do not see why It brings the share of the state
up to twice the previous sum: one prasthaadded when buying from the pro-
ducer, another one subtracted when selling to the consumer: a total of
12.5%. This seems a reasonable and by no means an outrageous sum in
view of normal trade margins 22) and the multitudinous devices and duties
which fell to the Supervisor of Markets in regulating trade and monitoring
transactions.
According to this reading, the state obtained (of trade, vydvahdrika-,goods
measured by capacity) one sixteenth. an example being the trade drona- of
187.5 palas just quoted. This was the vyadj, collected from the buyer. And
there was a second sixteenth which came from the producer I submit this
is what is meant by the term praydma-. For this, I have two reasons. One
is the sequence of words in the enumeration which opens this section: it
couples praydma- and vyaji just as vrddhz-had been coupled with ksaya-.
Second and obviously more important, there is pra-yam- itself. Its general
meaning is, of course, 'to give', and it occurs in a number of specialized
contexts: there is the king giving (i.e. granting) lands (2.1.7ff.), the physi-
cian giving (i.e. offering) medicine to the king (1 1.10), etc. The usage
closest to the praydma- under discussion is illustrated by instances like AS
2.8.18: among the cases of misappropriation of funds (apahdra-), there is the
official who 'does not give (i.e. hand over, deliver) an expenditure which
has been entered (into official records), nibaddhamvyayam na prayacchati'
This has a close parallel in Yajiiavalkya 2.254:
grhitamulyamyah panyam kreturnaiva prayacchattI
sodayam tasya ddpyo 'sau digldbhamvd digdgate I
'Whoever does not give (= deliver to) the buyer goods for which (he) has
taken the price, should be forced to give (them) to him, together with
interest; or, when someone (i.e. a buyer) has come from a (foreign) country,
(he should be forced to give him) the gains (the buyer could have obtained)
in the (foreign) country 23)

22) To be sure, at 4.2.28, the Arthasastra allows the tradesman a profit of 5% only on
indigenous goods, and 10% on goods imported: but this is to be over and above the 'permit-
ted price of purchase', anujidtakraydduparz. Besides, this profit went by the term djiva-, i.e.
it was understood as the trader's 'support', his 'subsistence', which is of course of a different
order from the claims of the state.
23) Visnusmrti 5,127 (ed. Jolly p. 24), practically identical with the first three pddas of
Yajiiavalkya's verse, offers a slight difference in wording which has interesting implications:
 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY 85

The prayama-, then, was a charge which government obtained when

things were handed over to the state, 24) e.g. when taxes were collected. This
is the point when another rule suddenly makes sense, viz., the payment of
people serving the state. For them, measures are to be reduced by another
sixteenth part as against those used in trade: according to 2.19.29 the drona
given as bhdjanryamis to consist of 175 palas instead of the 187.5 which made
up the vydvahdrikam:the same reduction occurs in 2.19.22. It is now easy to
see why. With people who are paid by the state, in whichever form, there
was no prayama-involved: hence, the state would as it were be one sixteenth
short. This was recovered by a corresponding decrease in emoluments.
?7. The second quotation from Kautalya is not quite easy It occurs in
course of the discussion on 'Standardization of Weights and Measures'
(KANGLE) and runs (2.19.24) purvayoh pancapalikah praydmo mdm-
salohalavanamanvarjam'of the former two, the prayama-is of five pala-, except
with meat, metal, salt, and jewels'
The question is what is to be understood by 'the former two'. Following
Bhattasvamin's commentary, MEYERand KANGLEtake the phrase to refer
to two pairs of scales mentioned in the same chapter, viz., the samavrttd
(2.19 12) and the partmdni (2.19 17). Both of them are quite large, and thus
presumably not ideal for weighings that need minute exactness, such as the
'jewels' of the text would require. The translators-though they do not say
so-may have thought the 'surplus' ordained was to compensate for any
inaccuracies.
Whatever the idea behind their rendering, I find it difficult to follow. For
one thing, a tolerance or 'surplus' would seem to make sense with, and
depend on, types of commodities, and not so much on types of scales (which
of course are chosen to fit the nature of the merchandise). And one notes
Kautalya's four exceptions are just that: meat, jewels, etc. Second, it seems
hardly conceivable metal and jewels were weighed on the same huge balance
(and expressisverbzsexcepting them, of course, implies the process was not
in itself thought impossible). Third, the tolerated margin of inaccuracy in
weights and measures is, after all, fixed in the Arthasastra itself: according

grhftamulyampanyam yah kretur natva dadydt tasydsau sodayam ddpyah: dadydt vs. prayacchati is a
variant which in substance tells us nothing-but it does give an unmistakeable pointer as
to why the levy went by the name of prayama-rather than by some derivation from da- this
was as it were occupied by the deya-levy
24) Breloer (loc.czt.note 20, pp. 227f.) thinks it is the reserves of goods the state keeps,
apparently in order to intervene in the market. This is hard to reconcile with the text of
2.19.24 (?7) and has no connection whatever with any meaning one might responsibly attach
to pra-yam-
86 BERNHARD KOLVER

to 4.2., half a pala- was allowed in a drona-. This is 0.25%-the twentieth

part of the five palas in a hundred which are ordained in the sentence under
discussion.
Fourth, there is the text itself. Talking of purvayoh, 'the two former, the
two afore-mentioned' and meaning the large balances would be distinctly
odd by reason of the sequence of topics within this chapter: 2.19.11 men-
tions ten kinds of scales of different sizes; in the next sentence, one learns
about the samavrttd, then about the partmant: on MEYER'Sreading, purva-
would be used to refer to what actually are the last items of the entire list
of twelve balances.
And finally, there is the context of the rule. The sentences immediately
preceding it are dasadharanikampalam | 12011 tat palasatam dyamdniz | 211
paicapaldvara vyavahdriki bhajany antahpurabhdjanz ca 11221 | tdsdm
ardhadharandvarampalam, dvtpaldvaram uttaraloham, sadanguldvards'cdydmdh
112311
'The pala- is of ten dharanas.A (balance) of a hundred palas is the measure
for revenue. The (balance) for trade, for servants (of the state) and for
palace servants is less by five palas. 25) For them, the pala- is half a dharana-
smaller (i.e. 95 % etc.), the metal of the Upper (beam) is two palas less, and
the length, six fingers'.
Then comes the sentence under discussion, concerning the praydma- of
five percent. Surely it would be more natural to refer it to this list of four
which immediately precedes it. Which would mean it has to be referred to
weighings of (a) state revenue (ayamdnt)and (b) trade measures (vydvahdriki):
just as goods measured (2.19.29), goods weighed underlie the delivery
charge.
?8. With state revenue, the reason is clear: taken as an isolated term, a
'delivery charge' in trade measures is less so.
The first interpretation to be explored starts out from 'trade measure-
ments' which involve a surplus to hand over. Something that answers to this
description was used in Nepalese markets until a few years ago before
measures of capacity had been replaced by weights. Vessels were filled, not
level with the brim (nep. nimtho, new. yald), but 'to overflowing' (nep.jhusi,
new jusse), i.e. heaped up for as much as they would hold. This was current
for a whole range of goods, down to sindur or dmlds.

25) This-and the instructions about the balance which follow-is generally understood
to refer to a gradation: each successive measurement is reduced by five palas, so that the
Palace pala- has only 85 dharanas. This is the same type of reduction as that of the drona- in
2.19.29' with goods measured, it progressed in steps of 6.25% while with goods weighed the
difference was 5%
 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY 87

This practice is another of the instances where a straight line connects

near-contemporary Nepalese usage with the Arthasastra. 2.19.34 fixed
rules concerning measures of capacity. In the course of so doing, it
distinguishes between two kinds: the caturbhagasikham vs. the antahsikham,
i.e. 'one with a heap (or peak, sikhd)of one fourth' vs. 'one with the heap
inside'. The latter is the method familiar to all of us, the vessel made large
enough to accommodate the entire volume; with the former, the vessel holds
only three fourths, the last quarter being constituted by the heap that pro-
trudes beyond the brim.
For measuring, it must have been an awkwardtechnique. MEYERpointed
to its first defect: every buyer will try to make the heap as large as possible,
every vendor will have the opposite tendency- there will be constant fric-
tion.26) The second problem of course is the proportion: the size of the
'heap' will depend on the substance measured: husked and unhusked rice

26) In the Kathmandu Valley, there is an interesting change in the shape of calibrated
and authorized market measures which was introduced during the 19th century and makes
very good sense as soon as one takes this practice into account. The older ones have a cross
section similar to a trapeze with the wider side on top; more recent specimens usually have
a body resembling a globe (with a flat bottom, so as to allow them to stand): but their upper
end is a cylinder tapering upwards, with the top diameter lower than that of the globe. There
is a different form, still used, which achieves the same effect: its cross section again consists
of a trapeze, but this time with the shorter side on top, and ending in a small cylindrical
funnel. I have not seen gauged specimens of this type.

Nepalese Market Measures

Older style (copper; right); newer style (brass; left)
(not to scale)

The two specimens of the diagram are identical in volume, as tested by water. The sikhd,
then, had changed its character: from part of the volume bought and paid for, it had
developed into a kind of bonus, which nonetheless the buyer had a right to. The altered
shape of course much reduces the bonus a buyer can claim. It meant considerable savings
to the trading community when they managed to talk government into permitting the newer
shape, and one wonders which favours they did the court in order to have it accepted.
88 BERNHARD KOLVER

behave in different ways: what is one quarter with one of them will not be
a quarter with the other
Here, then, we have something the buyer receives over and above the
volume contained in the vessel-as MEYER(pp. 85f., 162) had supposed
under the heading of vyidj. But we see its purpose is not to compensate for
an inaccuracy of measurements. And we have shown in the Arthasastra
both the vydji- and the praydma- went to the state and constituted its trade
margin.
This leaves only one solution for the praydma- surcharge of 2.19.24, as
levied in trading: it was also to be paid on goods the state bought in the
market. Chapters 2.15 and 2.16 contain abundant references to the state
trading and influencing markets.
?9 This is as far as Kautalya's text will carry us, and we are now in a
position to return to the calculations we left at ?4. The two charges of the
Arthasastra are the antecedents of the irregularities which we find in the
Nepalese manuscripts. Document II, with the additional dam in the mohar
received by the royal family, continues the 'payment on delivery' (praydma-),
the vyaj- is the additional dam entered against the artisans' names in Docu-
ment I.
As for its function and motive, the Nepalese documents testify to some
adaptations of underlying principles.
In one essential respect, they differ from the Arthasastra data so far dis-
cussed: they do not record transactions of trade and attendant surcharges
on merchandise, but payments by and to the state or court. (We have noted
this was not unknown to Kautalya: 2.25 40 ) This raises a very elementary
problem with the praydma- of Document II. It tells us the royal family
received an additional dam per mohar;but there is no indication to say where
it came from.
Given the detailed style of the document it seems hardly conceivable any
of the householders there listed would have been burdened with the
addition, which after all ranged between one half and one sixth of what he
had to pay, without this fact being entered into the ledgers. Unless there
is a flaw in this assumption, there is only one conceivable source for the
money This is the collector of the contributions; the added dam must have
come from his pocket.
If so, this offers prospects not any less interesting because of being
speculative in nature. To go by what the technique of accounting would
seem to imply, the collector of taxes would actually have incurred a loss
when forwarding the sums for the btlcih. He will have seen to it that he was
not. How, then, did he make up for it?
 PAYMENTS ON DELIVERY 89

One possibility, quite beyond verification but nonetheless not a far-

fetched one, is for him to have cajoled people into contributing more for the
purpose than what he actually recorded, viz., the standard sums the Palace
expected to receive. A second one, closer to attested facts, is provided by
the N.S.828 wage lists just discussed. There is really nothing to tell us the
carpenters actually received more than the simple product of working days
multiplied by daily wage, i.e., to revert to the three people of Note 7, 1344
for Visnusim, 1422 for Haku, 1188 for Ma mjusim, etc., with the difference
of eleven or nine dam going to the collector-or paymaster in the present
case. For one notes in contrast to Kautalya's 2.7.2 rule, the praydma- does
not rate a separate entry: the paymaster seems to have been allowed to enter
it into accounts as a matter of course-ostensibly, no doubt, to offset the
losses incurred when forwarding the sums collected on behalf of the state,
which in their total quantity will of course have far exceeded disbursements
for public works where he could make money. This is theory, though. The
right to collect taxes always was a lucrative business, and we have no reason
to believe mediaeval Nepal was any different in this respect.
The Nepalese documents suggest the praydma-was used to pay for the col-
lector and his staff, so that the state enjoyed its statutory income unim-
paired: the cost of collection would have been borne, not by the state, but
by its citizens. This is of course the same tendency which we observe when,
in lieu of an income granted by the court, an official is paid by being
assigned the revenue of a particular place or region. there again, it is the
official and not the state who has to shoulder the task of realizing his
'salary'. This is not to say that the state did not, in this period or that, lay
its hands on these fees, as we have seen the royal family do with the vzcdra-
levy. And finally, the procedure offers an exact analogy to the purposes of
Kautalya's praydma-and vydjfwhich were meant to recover the expense the
state incurred in regulating the market.
?10 There is one problem remaining. This is the difference in percen-
tages. The praydma- and the vyaji as attested in the Arthasastra range
between 1.56% (for sesame oil) and 6.25%; as against this, the Nepalese
charges amounted to slightly more than half of Kautalya's lowest rate,
0.833%.
A possible explanation would lie in an extension of the principle the
Arthasastra followed when fixing amounts: the sum of the actual levy
depended on the nature of the merchandise. To see cash at the bottom of
the scale is not really surprising: 2.25.40 (supra, p. 81) had told us the vydji
was also raised from money (or gold: hirantya-).The rate is not mentioned,
but apparently was subject to fluctuation.
90 BERNHARD KOLVER

? 11. This much for the technicalities. No doubt there is a considerable

gap in history that is being bridged: explaining Nepalese levies by means
of terms attested in the Arthasastra perhaps has a certain metaphorical ele-
ment to it. I do not mean to assert the Nepalese levies positively are the
prayama- and the vyadji.27) But there is the continuity in practices and, at
times, in basic notions, a continuity in this instance as in others, 28) a con-
tinuity which of course extends into the more remote past.
For the terminological use should not blind our eyes to the implications
of the etymology. pra-yam-is 'to give, to grant'-with all the overtones that
Marcel Mauss, or Sir Moses Finley, have taught us to perceive. 29) How the
notion developed from a social obligation into a legal and fiscal term, to end
up as a mere administrative charge-this could also be viewed as a chapter
in the history of rationalization and mechanization of relations between
men.

27) The terms are not found in the Nepall brhat sabdakos, nor in the current legal dic-
tionaries (T.B. Simha: Kinunii abdakos. Kathmandu 2038; H.S. Bhattarli: Prasasaklya
tatha kanuni sabdakosa. Kathmandu 2041, S.K. Srestha: Nepali kanuni sabdakos.
Kathmandu 2046). The relation between the vyadjand the modern bydj'interest' (cf. H.H.
Wilson, A Glossaryof Judictal and RevenueTerms.Repnnt. Delhi 1968, s.v vyaji 'bearng
interest, loan, debt') is of course the next problem.
28) Cf., e.g., my papers "Kautalya's ptndakara-reconsidered," Indologyand Law.
FestschriftJ.D.M. DerrettWiesbaden, 1982, pp. 168ff., "Kautalyas Stadt als Handelszen-
trum: der Terminus putabhedana-," in: Zeitschrift
derDeutschen
Morgenlandischen 135
Gesellschaft
Wiesbaden 1985, pp. 299ff.
29) M. Mauss, Die Gabe.Ubs.v. E. MoldenhauerFrankfurt 1968; M.I. Finley, The World
of OdysseysHarmondsworth, 1979, p. 66: "... there were taxes and other dues to lords and
kings, amends with a penal overtone (Agamemnon's gift to Achilles), and even ordinary
loans-and again the Homeric word is always 'gift' "