Sutra 28

Devanagari script

पुरोपवनवनस्पतीनां पुष्पफलच्छायावतां प्ररोहच्छेदने षट्पणः क्षुद्रशाखाच्छेदने द्वादशपणः पीनशाखाच्च्छेदने चतुर्विंशतिपणः स्कन्धवधे पूर्वः साहसदण्डः समुच्छित्तौ मध्यमः ॥ कZ_०३.१९.२८ ॥

Transliteration

puropavanavanaspatīnāṃ puṣpaphalacchāyāvatāṃ prarohacchedane ṣaṭpaṇaḥ | kṣudraśākhācchedane dvādaśapaṇaḥ | pīnaśākhācchedane caturviṃśatipaṇaḥ | skandhavadhe pūrvaḥ sāhasadaṇḍaḥ samucchittau madhyamaḥ ||

Translation

မြို့ပန်းခြံရှိ ပန်းပွင့်/အသီးပေး/အရိပ်ပေးသော သစ်ပင်များ၏ ပင်ပေါက် (shoot) ကို ဖြတ်တောက်ပါက ဒဏ်ငွေ ၆ ပဏ၊ သေးငယ်သော ကိုင်းကို ဖြတ်တောက်ပါက ၁၂ ပဏ၊ ထူသော ကိုင်းကို ဖြတ်တောက်ပါက ၂၄ ပဏ ချမှတ်ရမည်။ ပင်စည်ကို သတ်မိပါက ပထမအဆင့် sāhasa ဒဏ်ငွေကို လိုက်နာရမည်၊ အမြစ်ထုတ်၍ လုံးဝဖျက်ဆီးပါက အလယ်အဆင့် sāhasa ဒဏ်ငွေကို လိုက်နာရမည်။

Word by Word

पुरःin front (of the town/settlement)

उपवनgrove, garden

वनस्पतीनाम्of trees (arboreal plants)

पुष्पflower

फलfruit

छायाshade

वताम्possessing (having)

प्ररोहsprout, new shoot

छेदनेin the act/case of cutting

षट्six

पणः(a fine of) pana(s)

क्षुद्रsmall, minor

शाखाbranch

छेदनेin the case of cutting

द्वादशtwelve

पणः(a fine of) pana(s)

पीनthick, stout

शाखाbranch

छेदनेin the case of cutting

चतुर्विंशतिtwenty-four

पणः(a fine of) pana(s)

स्कन्धtrunk, stem

वधेin the case of killing/destroying

पूर्वःthe first (lowest)

साहसsāhasa (violent/forcible offence)

दण्डःpenalty, fine

समुच्छित्तौin the case of complete cutting down/uprooting

मध्यमःthe middle (second grade)

Entities Mentioned

city parks (upavana)

trees (flower/fruit/shade)

offender

state authority

FAQs

What administrative principle is reflected in the stepwise fines (shoot → branch → thick branch → trunk → uprooting)?

Proportionality by marginal damage: penalties rise with the ecological/economic loss and recovery time, culminating in violent-offence grading for irreversible destruction.

Why single out flower/fruit/shade trees?

They generate recurring public value (food, comfort, microclimate) and thus merit explicit protection as urban infrastructure.