Indian Epigraphy c16.s5.4

c16.s5.4

² According to Megasthenes, the husbandmen of the Maurya dominions paid a fourth part of the produce of the soil (*bhāga*) and a land tribute apparently in cash (*bali*). Other state dues included tribute and prescribed services from traders and cattle from hardsmen while in urban areas the main sources of revenue were birth and death taxes, fines and tithes on sales. See Raychaudhuri, *Pol. Hist. Anc. Ind.*, 1938, pp. 240-41. Indian sources generally speak of the king's grain share as one-sixth.