Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s9.4

v1.c10.s9.4

A very brief historical sketch of the customs duties as understood in pre-Vijayanagara days may not be out of place here. In the early times, too, customs duties formed an important part of the State revenue. We may also observe that even betel-leaf sellers had to pay duties. Thus the betel-leaf sellers in A.D. 1074 had to pay *okkal dere*,⁴ which seems to have been more of the nature of a tax or an impost rather than that of the *ādāyam* of the later age. However, the customs and imposts as known in the Karṇāṭaka went by the general names of *herjuṅka* and *vaḍḍarāvula*.⁵ Officers of the government were placed over the *perjuṅka* or Big Customs. Sometimes, as in A.D. 1111, these superior officers were called *pērggaḍe*.⁶ The rates of the duties in the Tamil land, according to an inscription dated in the tenth year of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāṇḍya, were the following: half a *paṇam* on each bundle of female cloths, one quarter *paṇam* on each *poḍi* of pepper, one quarter *paṇam* on each *poḍi* of areca-nuts: one quarter *paṇam* on each gold piece (*poṇ*) tested by rubbing, two *kāśu* on each *poḍi* of rice; one *kāśu* on each *poḍi* of paddy; and one *kāśu* on each head-load.⁷ But these rates often varied in different provinces.