The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s3: Government Expenditure
The Rāṣṭrakūṭas and their Times c18.s3
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Government Expenditure
c18.s3.1
Epigraphical records naturally give no information in details about the various items of state expenditure during the period of Ancient Indian History, but it is strange that the Niti and Smriti works also should be silent upon the point. Most of them give in great details the various sources of revenue, but the information which only a few of them supply about the heads of the expenditure is very scrappy and unsystematic. Kauṭalya (122) enumerates 14 items of expenditure but the list is neither systematic nor exhaustive. Royal harem and kitchen are the only items of the civil list mentioned by him, the items of civil administration and judiciary are altogether omitted, only a few heads of the military expenditure are enumerated and the navy is forgotten altogether. The only work which lays down definite principles of public expenditure is the S'ukranīti. (123) The author of this interesting work very probably lived in the vicinity of our period and his dicta seem to have been based upon the actual practice of the three great military powers of the age, viz. the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, the Gurjara-Pratīhāras and the Pālas. His view would, therefore, be particularly valuable for our present enquiry. S'ukra divides the income in six parts and lays down that one should be kept as reserve, as many as three should be assigned to the army, and half of a part should be reserved for each of the four following items, viz, (1) Charity, (2) Privy purse, (3) Civil administration and (4) 'People'. It is very likely that if ever the Rāṣṭrakūṭa and Gurjara-Pratīhāra budgets are discovered, they would disclose a similar allocation of funds. These empires were maintaining huge military forces and it is quite possible that their military expenditure may have amounted to half of the Central revenues. It must be, however, added that S'ukra includes also the police forces under the expression bala. The percentage for the general administration seems to be rather small, but it must not be forgotten that many of the state officers were paid by rent-free lands. S'ukra permits only about 8% for the king's privy purse and it is perhaps possible that in actual practice the kings for our period may have taken a little more. The percentage reserved for charity, viz. about 8% seems too high. But it must be remembered that the religious outlook of the age was different from ours, and that the sums spent under this head helped indirectly the cause of education as well. The last item ‘people’ seems to include the provision made in the Central budget for the general needs and improvements of the country; grants for big public works, expenses for the upkeep of the imperial roads, special grants to local bodies for works beyond their limited means etc., were probably included under this item. Education, sanitation, local roads and public works were to a great extent managed by the local bodies, which were supplied with the necessary funds by the earmarking of a certain percentage of the revenues collected in the villages for the local needs.¹²⁴ The imperial budget, therefore, had no separate provision for these various items; the central government had only to make extra special grants to local bodies for projects beyond their limited means, and the item ‘people’ probably denotes that provision in the Imperial budget.
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¹¹⁸ E. I., V p. 28.
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¹¹⁹ II, 135-6.
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¹²⁰ IX, 5.
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¹²¹ Nirukta, III, 5.
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¹²² II. 6.
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¹²³ I, p. 315-6.
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¹²⁴ Ante p. 209.
Linked texts (1)
- Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit