Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1356

XI, 39.
TRESPASSING CATTLE.
163
their keeper, have entered a field, no punishment shall be inflicted on the owner of the cows; the herdsman (alone) is punishable (for the damage done by them).
* 36. When (a herdsman) has been seized by the king or (devoured) by an alligator, or struck by Indra's thunderbolt, or bitten by a serpent, or fallen from a tree,
* 37. Or killed by a tiger or other (ferocious animal), or smitten by a disease of any sort, no offence can be imputed either to the herdsman or to the owner of the cattle.
* 38. When a man claims damages for grain consumed by cattle (grazing in his field), that quantity of grain must be restored to him (by the owner of the cattle), which has been consumed in the field in the estimation of the neighbours.
* 39. The cows shall be given up to their owner, and the grain to the husbandman. In the same way a fine shall be imposed on the herdsman when grain has been trodden down (by cows).
36. Seized by the king,' employed in the king's business. See Colebrooke's Digest, III, 4, 52.
37. This paragraph is omitted in the Nepalese MS.
38. Gautama XII, 26; Manu VIII, 241; Yâgħavalkya II, 161. The Nepalese MS. inserts a spurious verse here, the first half of which is identical with Manu IX, 37, and the second half identical with Nárada XI, 22.
39. The meaning of the injunction to give up the cows seems to be this, that the owner of the cows shall not at once recover them, when they have been seized by the proprietor of the field, after doing damage in the field. The Vivâdakintamani has a different reading of this clause: gavatram gominâ deyam. This is explained as meaning that 'blades of corn must be made good by the owner of cattle.' Similar readings are found in other commentaries as well. Apastamba II, 11, 28, 5.
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