240 



ON THE WEAPONS USED 



The punishment of any one who contravenes these laws was 

 that he should inherit all the sins of him whom he thus kills 

 unlawfully, and his victim would become heir to all the virtues 

 of his murderer. 132 If what is most probable the Sukraniti 

 and Nitiprakasika are of about the same age as our recension 

 of the Manavadharmasastra, the question as to firearms 

 being known at that period can only be answered in the 

 affirmative. 



It appears that before the codification of the law in law- 

 books, the rules and precepts regulating certain subjects seem 

 to have been generally known among the people and even 

 assumed already the form of verse. Otherwise it can hardly 

 be explained that the very same slokas are found in different 

 authors, unless one is prepared to state that one must have 

 copied them from another. But for such a supposition there 

 exists no proof. It is rather more likely that they were 

 common property and then embodied in the respective codes. 

 There is not the slightest doubt that the interdict of the 

 Manavadharmasastra interfered a great deal with the popu- 

 larity of firearms, and that though they continued to be 

 used, they were less frequently or perhaps less openly employed. 

 The Mahabharata too contains many precepts by which mean, 

 deceitful, and cruel behaviour is forbidden in war, but in 

 reality those laws were often broken. The behaviour of the 

 Kauravas against the Pandavas, whom they tried to burn 



132 As the Nitiprakasika differs somehow from the Manavadharmasastra 

 and from the Sukraniti we give here the following verses. 

 VII. 47. Na prasuptam na pranatam na nagnam na nirayudham 

 na yudhyamanam pasyantam na parena samagatam. 



48. Ayudhavyasanam praptam nartam natipariksatam 

 na hlnam na paravrttam na ca valmikam asritam. 



49. Na mukhe trninam hanyat na striyo vesadharinam 

 etadrsan bhatairvapi ghatayan kilbisl bhavet. 



50. Hanyamanasya yat kincit duskrtam purvasafijitam 

 tat sahgrhya svasukrtam tebhyo dad yat tathavidhah. 



With na mukhe trninam hanyat (si. 49) compare Mahabharata, Rajadharma, 

 XCVIIT, 48a ; Trnapnrnamukhascaiva tavasmlti ca yo vacet. 



