In his book Manu and Yājñavalkya (1930: 83–84), when treating the term anubandha in its technical sense, K.P. Jayaswal proposes the meaning: “cause, motive” of an offense. He draws this conclusion from two sources: a passage from the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra and one from a pillar edict of Aśoka.

Nevertheless, in our experience, not only does the learned author's opinion not agree with a great number of sources other than those used by him, but in the said sources themselves the recorded meaning is open to serious objections.

We are not sufficiently acquainted with the language of Aśoka's edicts so as to be inclined to draw conclusions from them. Yet, below we shall venture an interpretation which is different from Jayaswal's. Before that, however, we want to make a few annotations on the meaning of anubandha in the legal texts.

We shall not maintain that this short note fixes the meaning of anubandha definitively; for this purpose all the texts on vyavahāra would have to be exhausted. The only thing we want to do is to deliver a limited contribution to circumscribing the meaning of the term.

The text on which Jayaswal has founded the meaning of anubandha is MDh 8.126: when inflicting punishment the king shall take into consideration:

1. anubandha,

2. deśa = place,

3. kāla = time,

4. sāra = the power or ability of the wrongdoer,

5. aparādha = the offense.