The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s1.41

c18.s1.41

Nor does the Tuppad Kurahatti inscription of Kṛṣṇa III²⁰ help us in this connection. This record states : Tondayya, the country gāmuṇḍa of Belvola 300, and six gamuṇḍas granted in concert to the temple constructed by Aychayya 50 mattars (of land) by king's measure and one mattar for a garden. On this for the share of the king the fixed revenue shall be 2 gadyāṇas and for the revenue of the country gāmuṇḍas the fixed revenue of two gold gadyāṇas. The total taxation for this field of 50 mattars and the garden of 1 mattar would be only 4 golden gadyāṇas i. e. 2 tolas of gold or 30 tolas of silver. Unfortunately the precise dimensions of a mattar are not known, and there is ample evidence to show that the measure varied with localities. The grants made by the Śilāhāra prince Gonakarasa on one and the same occasion but in three different localities were by mattar of three different dimensions, prevailing in the places concerned.²¹ The Mangoli inscription of Bijjala, dated 1161 A.D.,²² assigns eight mattars to the four Brahmanas whose households constituted the Brahmana house-hold of the deity. It would thus seem that a Brahmana family required two mattars of dry land for its subsistance. A mattar therefore, may have been equal to about 4 or 5 acres of land at Mangoli, and its dimensions in other localities could not have been very much different. The tax of eight kalanjus of gold that was levied from about 50 mattars of dry land in the time of Kṛṣṇa III at the village of Tuppad Kurahatti would thus be from a piece of about 200 acres. The taxation per 100 acres is thus found to be only one tola of gold. This may have been, however, due to the fact that the permanent assessment for that piece of land was not the normal government demand, but only a kind of quit-rent, since the land was given to a temple as a devadāya grant. There is evidence to show that the temple lands were taxed on a lower scale. It will be soon shown that the average demand of government under the Cholas was 100 kalams of paddy per veli; but an inscription from Konerirajapuram informs us that 12 velis of temple land in the locality were charged a tax of only 600 kalams of paddy, before it was altogether exempted from taxation. The average taxation on temple land in this case is thus found to be only half of that on ordinary lands. Even then the taxation amount per acre at Tuppad Kurahatti would be too low, for it would be only 2 tolas of gold per 100 acres. It is possible that the quit-rent in this case was only nominal, or that the land was very poor in quality.