The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s8.4

v1.c19.s8.4

We shall probably never know how these great changes, and especially the fall of Kosala, were brought about. And we have no information as to the degree in which the various local authorities retained any shadow of power. Were the taxes fixed by the central power and collected by its own officers? Or were the local rates maintained and collected by a local authority? If the latter, were the actual sums received paid over to the central office at Pāṭaliputta, or was a yearly tribute fixed by the paramount power? On these and similar questions we are still quite in the dark. But our two sets of authorities, which are quite independent of one another, agree in the little they do tell us.