The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s1.t1.11

c18.s1.t1.11

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)