Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s2: Section 2. Theory as Regards Sources of Revenue

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s2

Language
English

Section 2. Theory as Regards Sources of Revenue

v1.c10.s2.1

Manu has specified the rate of taxation and customs duties thus: "A fiftieth part of the (increments on) cattle and gold may be taken by the king, and the eighth, sixth, or twelfth part of the crops. He may also take the sixth part of trees, meat, honey, clarified butter, perfumes, (medical) herbs, substances used for flavouring food, flowers, roots, and fruits; of leaves, pot herbs, grass, (objects) made of cane, skins, of earthen vessels, and all (articles) made of stone".¹ "Let the king make the common inhabitants of his realm who live by traffic, pay annually some trifle which is called a tax. Mechanics and artisans, as well as Sūdras who subsist by manual labour, he may cause to work (for himself) one (day) in each month. Let him not cut up his own root (by levying no taxes) nor the root of other (men) by excessive greed; for by cutting up his own root (or theirs) he makes himself or them wretched".²

v1.c10.s2.2

¹ Manu, VII, 130-2, pp. 236-7.

v1.c10.s2.3

² Ibid., VII, 137-8, pp. 237-8.

v1.c10.s2.4

The Collector-General, according to Kauṭilya, shall "attend to (the collection of revenue from) forts. . . country parts. . . mines. . .buildings, and gardens. . . forests. . .herds of cattle. . .and roads of traffic. . .Tolls, fines, weights and measures, the town-clerk. . .the superintendent of coinage. . .the superintendent of seals and passports, liquor, slaughter of animals, threads, oils, ghee, sugar. . .the state goldsmith. . .the warehouse of merchandise, the prostitute, gambling, building sites. . . the corporation of artisans and handicraftsmen. . .the superintendent of gods, and taxes collected at the gates and from the people (known as) Bāhirikas come under the heads of forts. Produce from crown lands. . .portion of produce payable to the government. . .religious taxes. . . taxes paid in money. . .merchants, the superintendent of rivers, ferries, boats and ships, towns, pasture grounds, road-cess. . .ropes. . .and ropes to bind thieves. . .come under the head of country parts. Gold, silver, diamonds, gems, pearls, corals, conch shells, metals. . .salt and other minerals extracted from plains and mountain slopes come under the head of mines. Flower gardens, fruit gardens, vegetable gardens, wet fields and fields where crops are grown by sowing roots for seeds. . .come under sētu. Game forests, timber forests, and elephant forests are forests. Cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, asses, camels, horses, and mules come under the head of herds. Land and waterways are the roads of traffic. All these form the body of income. . .Capital. . .share. . .premia. . .parigha (?) fixed taxes. . . premia on coins. . . .and fixed fines. . are several forms of revenue . . ."¹

v1.c10.s2.5

¹ *Arthaśāstra*, Bk. II, Ch. VI, 60, pp. 63-4. The technical names, e.g., *durga*, *rāṣṭra*, *vraja*, are omitted in this quotation. B.A.S.

v1.c10.s2.6

In the *Sukranīti* the following nine sources of revenue are enumerated:

v1.c10.s2.7

(a) *Bhāga* or rent or tax on land;

v1.c10.s2.8

(b) *Sulka* or duties on commerce;

v1.c10.s2.9

(c) *Daṇḍa* or fines realized by the State through its penal authority;

v1.c10.s2.10

(d) *Akṛiṣṭapāchya* or what is received without cultivation or effort, e.g., nature's contribution;

v1.c10.s2.11

(e) *Araṇya* or forest produce;

v1.c10.s2.12

(f) *Ākara* or mineral wealth;

v1.c10.s2.13

(g) *Nidhi* or that which is deposited with the State bank by the citizens;

v1.c10.s2.14

(h) *Asvāmika* or unowned property which is escheat to State, and

v1.c10.s2.15

(i) *Takṣarāhita* or that which is gotten from thieves.²

v1.c10.s2.16

² *Sukranīti*, II, ll. 209-14, pp. 73-4; Sarkar, *Pos. Back.*, II, P. 1, p. 112.

v1.c10.s2.17

In another connection we have the following list of items that provide the State with revenue: *śulka* or duty, both customs and excise, land revenue, royalty on mining, grasses, timber and forest produce in general, animal husbandry or cattle rearing, working and compulsory labour, money lender or employer of loan capital, taxes on houses and dwellings, on the site for stalls used by the shopkeepers, and road cess to be paid for the preservation and repair of streets.³ "By these ten heads of income, the state is in a position to tap every resource of the people. No species of property is left untaxed. Land in every form, including forests, and mines, houses and stalls for residence or for business, labor, sales and purchase, as well as capital,—no conceivable source of the citizen's income is to get scot-free. To these we should probably have to add an eleventh item, viz., fines inflicted by the courts of Justice. . .In addition to the normal sources of income, we have some sort of an emergency collection in Sukra's thought. For war purposes, or for other extraordinary contingencies, we are told, the usual rates may be enhanced all along the line. Even holy places and properties consecrated to the gods, which are untouchable in peace times, may be conscripted under the war budget. . Possibly, in order to make assurance doubly sure, state-hoarding is regarded by philosophers' who, like German and Japanese statesmen, are obsessed by the notion of self-defence against foreign aggression, as a second string to the bow of sound war-finance".²

v1.c10.s2.18

³ *Sukranīti*, IV, ii, 212-58, pp. 147-9; Sarkar, *ibid.*, p. 116, seq.

v1.c10.s2.19

² Sarkar, Pos. Back., II, P. 1, p. 121.

v1.c10.s2.20

These principles of the Hindu lawgivers make it clear that the State is entitled not only to levy taxes from the people, on condition that it assures them protection, but is also permitted to strengthen its financial stability in times of need by having recourse to extraordinary courses of action. The multifarious items which, according to Kauṭilya and Śukrāchārya, are to be taxed, and the sanction which they have given for a monarch to encroach on the property of the Brahmans when beset with danger, may enable us to understand the system of taxation under Vijayanagara which left almost no article untaxed in the Empire.

Linked texts (2)