Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s3.1

v1.c10.s3.1

The latitude which is thus sanctioned by the lawgivers in matters of taxation was perhaps as much responsible in the shaping of the "financial policy" of Vijayanagara as the precedent set by the kings who ruled over the Karṇāṭaka and Tamil lands. Here it would be worth while to remember that the Vijayanagara monarchs were essentially heirs to the Hoysala traditions, although they judiciously followed, wherever they could, the custom which prevailed under the rule of the Tamil kings. Taxation in the Hoysala times, for example, rested on the main heads of land revenue, customs and excise duties, and taxes on articles and persons.³ All kinds of goods, even firewood and straw, were taxed, excepting glass rings, brass pots and soap balls.⁴ The traders paid mane-bāb; aṅgaḍi gullu was paid by the shop-keepers; the āyagāra and other officers accounted for one-third or one-eighth of the produce to the government; those who sold spirituous liquor paid kallali; the butchers were liable to the half-yearly tax called kasāyi-gutta; the washermen paid ubbe-gutta; those who smelted iron, homla-gutta, annually; the weavers and manufacturers of cotton cloth paid jakāyati; gānige-gutta was the name given to the tax on oil-makers; samayā-chāram, that on the headman of each caste; jāti-mānyam,¹ that paid by the Mādigas or chucklers; the salt-makers had to pay uppinamolla; the cowherds, hullu-banni for feeding their flocks in the public pastures; kāvali-gutta was the name given to the tax which the government got by letting out jungles; and those who were convicted of murder (?) (homicide?) and executors were liable to the jāyiri-gutta.²