Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s6.5

v1.c10.s6.5

The conclusion of this admirable treatise deserves, however, to be modified in the light of later research. Apart from the fact that the epigraphs which Ellis utilized in the compilation of his standard work on Mirasi Right, are documents which are historically worthless,² it may be questioned on valid grounds whether the system of realizing revenue in money was really an innovation of modern days. It is admitted that taxes were paid in kind under the ancient Hindu governments. Thus in the Arthaśāstra provision is made for the inclusion of such taxes in kind among those which were to be levied by the Superintendent of the storehouse.³ It is also granted that, as, for example, in the time of Rājarāja I, the revenue was assessed in kind. But the same inscription informs us that it was also realized in money or kāśu.⁴ A record in the seventh year of Sakala-lōka-Chakravartin Rāja-Nārāyaṇa Sambuvarāya states that the king remitted the taxes payable both in money and in kind on lands whose crops had suffered damage in Kalavaiparru in the North Arcot district.¹