Arthashastra — Adhyakshaprachara, Sutra 10

Devanagari script

विष्कम्भचतुरश्रमट्टालकमुत्सेधसमावक्षेपसोपानं कारयेत्त्रिंशद्दण्डान्तरं च ॥ कZ_०२.३.१० ॥

Transliteration

viṣkambhacaturaśramaṭṭālakam utsedhasamāvakṣepasopānaṃ kārayet triṃśaddaṇḍāntaraṃ ca

Translation

သတ်မှတ်ထားသော အကျယ် (viṣkambha) အတိုင်း ရင်ပြင်ပုံစံ စောင့်ကြည့်တိုင် (watchtower) ကို ဆောက်လုပ်စေသင့်ပြီး၊ တိုင်၏ အမြင့်နှင့် တက်ဆင်းမှုနှင့် ကိုက်ညီသော လှေကားများကိုလည်း ထည့်သွင်းစေသင့်သည်; ထို့ပြင် (တိုင်မျိုးတူ) တိုင်များအကြား ဒဏ္ဍ ၃၀ အကွာအဝေးကို ထားရမည်။

Word by Word

• विष्कम्भ-चतुरश्र-मट्टालक-उत्सेध-समावक्षेप-सोपानम्: (He should have made/provided) the set of: supporting beams/pillars, a four-sided (structure), battlements/platform (maṭṭālaka), height/elevation, a sloping descent/throw (samāvakṣepa), and stairway.
• Type: Noun
• Root: विष्कम्भ; चतुरश्र; मट्टालक; उत्सेध; समावक्षेप; सोपान
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, एकवचन, द्वितीया (कर्मपदम्); समासः—विष्कम्भः (स्तम्भ/आधार-बीमः), चतुरश्रः (चतुरस्र/चतुष्कोणः), मट्टालकः (परकोटि/प्राकार-उपरि-रचना/मचान-प्रायः), उत्सेधः (ऊर्ध्व-प्रमाण/उन्नतिः), समावक्षेपः (अवक्षेप/अवतरण-प्रक्षेप-प्रमाणम्; ढाल/उतार-व्यवस्था), सोपानम् (सीढी/सोपान-पङ्क्तिः) — एतेषां समाहारः

• कारयेत्: should cause to be made / should have constructed
• Type: Verb
• Root: कृ (णिच्)
• Form: लोट्/विधिलिङ् (आज्ञार्थ/विध्यर्थ), परस्मैपदम्, प्रथमपुरुष, एकवचन; णिच्-प्रयोगः (कारयति = करवयति)

• त्रिंशत्-दण्ड-अन्तरम्: a spacing/interval of thirty daṇḍas (measuring-rods)
• Type: Noun
• Root: त्रिंशत्; दण्ड; अन्तर
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, एकवचन, द्वितीया (कर्मपदम्); समासः—दण्डान्तरम् = दण्डैः मीयमानम् अन्तरम् (दण्ड-प्रमाणेन मितं अन्तरालम्); त्रिंशत् (संख्याविशेषणम्)

• च: and
• Type: Particle
• Root: च
• Form: समुच्चयार्थक-अव्ययम्

Entities Mentioned

• maṭṭālaka (watchtower)
• stairs (sopāna)
• measurement unit: daṇḍa

More Details

FAQs

What is the governance rationale for fixed spacing of towers?

Uniform spacing optimizes surveillance coverage and defensive fire support, while simplifying planning, budgeting, and inspection.