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The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s1.t1: (I, iii) Bhūtopāttapratyāya

The Rāṣṭrakūṭas and their Times c18.s1.t1

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(I, iii) Bhūtopāttapratyāya

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This tax has been almost universally mentioned in all the grants of our period, and the same is the case with the documents of the earlier and later centuries. This expression has so far defied the efforts of scholars to discover its meaning. It was proposed to explain the term as a tax for protecting those who have come into existence, or as a tax for spiriting away ghosts; (48) Dr. Ghosal proposes to translate it literally as 'a revenue derived from the elements and the wind,' (49) but admits that the precise meaning of the expression is uncertain.

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Our records give several readings of this term. *Sam-bhṛtopāttapratyāya*, (50) *bhūtapātapratyāya*, (51) and *bhūtavāta-pratyāya* (52) are the main ones. Of these *bhūtapāta* occurs only twice and may be a mistake for *bhūtavāta* or *bhūtopātta*.

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⁴⁶ Arthaśāstra, II, 15.

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⁴⁷ On Manu, VIII, 307.

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⁴⁸ It is no doubt true that a 10th century record from Banavadi mentions an offering of boiled rice which the villagers had to pay for the ghosts of the village, (E. I., XI, p. 6) but as no other record mentions such a tax it is almost certain that it was not a universal one. It is also unlikely that Brahmana donees would have ever consented to receive for themselves such a tax.

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⁴⁹ Ghosal, *Hindu Revenue System*, p. 217.

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⁵⁰ *e. g.* in Konnur inscription of Amoghavarsha I, E. I., VI, p. 29.

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⁵¹ *e. g.* in Baroda plates of Karkka, I. A., XII, p. 161.

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⁵² *e. g.* Kavi plates, I. A., V, p. 145.

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The remaining three readings signify more or less the same thing. The term *Bhūtopāttapratyāya* means a tax (*Aya*) on (*prati*) what has been taken in i. e. imported (*upātta*), and what has been produced (*bhūta*) in the village. The reading *Sambhṛtopāttapratyāya*, if not a mistake for *Sabhūtopātta-pratyāya*, would indicate a tax upon articles (manufactured and) stored (*sambhṛta*) and goods imported. *Bhūtavātapratyāya* is more enigmatical, but the expression *vāta* may refer to articles imported (*vā*, III conj., to wish to gain, to invite, to invoke) into the villages. It is, therefore, clear that these expressions refer to the general excise and octroi duties that were collected at the villages. This interpretation is further supported by the fact that the expression *Bhūtopāttapratyāya* does not figure along with the term *sas'ulka* in any of our records; Karda plates of Karkka II, dated 973 A.D., (53) Kauthem plates of Vikramāditya, dated 1008 A.D. (54) and Miraj plates of Jagadekamalla dated 1024 A.D. (55) describe the respective grants of the villages as *sas'ulka*, but they omit the expression *sabhūtopāttapratyāya*; the remaining records use the latter term but omit the former. It is thus clear that the *s'ulka* tax is nearly the same as the *bhūtopāttapratyāya* one.

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The Sirur inscription of Amoghavarsha I (56) and the Soratur inscription of Kṛṣṇa III (57) mention a tax on clarified butter and charcoal respectively; the government's right to claim, apparently from the herdsmen and cattle-breeders, the best bull and she-buffalo is mentioned in some of the records of the Vākāṭakas and the Yādavas of the Deccan, and of the Cholas of Tamil country, (58) a copperplate of the S'ilāhāras of Konkan, who were administering the coastal territories of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, mentions a customs duty of one golden Gadyāṇa from every ship arriving from a foreign country and of one silver dharaṇa from every one coming from coastal ports.(59) Some of the inscriptions of the Cholas(60) mention a tax on potters, shepherds, weavers, oilmen, shopkeepers, stall-keepers, brewers and gardeners. Siddāya tax, i.e. a tax on articles manufactured, was levied at Badami in the 12th century.(61) All these taxes will fall under the category of Bhūtopāttapratyāya. Some of the taxes mentioned above do not figure in the records of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, but most of them, and others also of a similar nature, may have very probably been levied by them also. The general expression Sabhūtopāttapratyāya being used in the plates there was no further necessity to specify them individually. It may be pointed out that most of these taxes have been advocated in standard books on polity and Dharmaśāstra.(62)

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⁵³ I. A., XII, p. 264.

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⁵⁴ I. A., XVI, p. 24.

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⁵⁵ I. A., VIII, p. 18.

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⁵⁶ E. I., VII, p. 203.

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⁵⁷ I. A., XII, p. 257.

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⁵⁸ *E. g.* Chammak plates, C. I. I., III, p. 238; Behatti inscription of Kṛṣṇa, J. B. B. R. A. S. IV, p. 48; Tandontottam plates, S. I. I., II, pp. 530-1.

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Octroi and excise duties were collected sometimes in kind and sometimes in cash. The taxes on butter and charcoal at Sirur(63) and Soratur(64) were collected in kind, but the octroi duties at Badami(65) and the customs dues at Kharepatan were collected in cash. The taxes collected in kind were very often assigned to local officers as shown already; this was inevitable, for the central government could hardly have managed to have at the capital a store of shoes, flowers, betel-leaves etc. that were paid as taxes in the distant villages of its empire. Even if a store had been opened there, most of these articles would have been rendered useless before they reached the depot. Epigraphical records do not supply any information about the percentage of the taxes we are discussing, but a number of writers like Manu, (VII, 131-2) Viṣṇu, (III, 33) Gautama (II, i, 30) and Kauṭalya (II, 21) lay down that the excise duty to be levied should be 16% in case of articles like fish, meat, honey, medicines, fruits.

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⁵⁹ E. I., III, p. 286

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⁶⁰ S. I. I., III., p. 391.

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⁶¹ I. A., VI, p. 141.

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⁶² Manu VII, 131 ff.; Viṣṇu, III, 29 ff.

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pottery, fuel, etc. The taxation may have varied in practice with different articles to some extent, but the average may have been in the vicinity of 16%. From Ibn Batuta we learn that the octroi duties in the first half of the 14th century A.D. were 25%. The percentage of customs duties seems to have varied between 5 and 10%. Viṣṇu (III, 30) and Gautama (II, i, 26) prescribe 5%, Śukra (IV, 2, 110) recommends a duty varying from 3% to 6% and Baudhāyana (1, 10, 15) permits a levy at 10%.

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