The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s1.68

c18.s1.68

The land tax was collected usually in kind and rarely in cash; inscription Nos. 4 and 5 at the Rājarājeśvara temple show that in the vast majority of the villages, the tax was realised in paddy in Tamil country. Coming a little to the north we have the instance of the actual taxation of a village in Gangawadi which used to pay a tax of 20 Kalunjus and 2000 Kadis of paddy.(38) It is very likely that the taxes in kind were those realised from lands and those in cash from other sources. Beli-ur, another village in the same province, is known(39) to have been paying a revenue of 80 gold coins and 800 measures of paddy in 887 A.D. Here also the same explanation might hold good. The Cambay plates of Govinda IV no doubt state that the Emperor had given 1400 villages to temples and Brahmanas, each of which yielded an average revenue of 500 Suvarṇas;(40) but it is not very likely that the entire revenues in all these villages were collected in cash alone. It is probable that the plates give the cash equivalent of the revenues collected in these villages, so that the imperial charity may appear imposing and magnificent. It must also be remembered in this connection that the Dharmaśāstras laud to the skies gifts of gold and land but not of corn; that may have been another reason for stating the revenues of