Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s9.6

v1.c10.s9.6

With what scrupulous care the Vijayangara monarchs looked after the customs is told to us by 'Abdur Razzāq. "The fortress. . . . is made of stone and mortar, with strong gates, where guards are always posted, who are very diligent in the collection of taxes, *jisyāt*".¹ Nuniz gives us the amount of the revenue derived by the State from customs. He describes the city of Nāgalāpura: "It now yields forty-two thousand *pardaos* of duties for things which enter into it, the duties in this land being very great; since nothing comes through the gates that does not pay duty, even men and women, as well as head-loads, and all merchandise".² Then again, while describing the great tank built by Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya, the same chronicler writes: "Above this tank is a very large ridge all enclosed, and in the middle some very strong gates with two towers, one on one side and one on the other; and within are always posted 1,000 men on guard. For through this gate all things must enter that come into the two cities, since in order to enter the city of Bisnaga there is no other road but this, all other roads meeting there. This gate is rented out for 12,000 *pardaos* each year, and no man can enter it without paying just what the renters ask, country folk as well as strangers. . . . and every day there enter by these two gates 2,000 oxen, and every one of these pays three *vintēes* ("about 3½d" [?]), except certain polled oxen without horns, which never pay anything in any part of the realm".³ Nuniz, therefore, confirms the evidence of 'Abdur Razzāq about the strictness and care with which the State collected customs duties at the main gates of the capital. The Portuguese chronicler speaks of the main gates being "rented out for 12,000 *pardaos* each year",⁴ and herein we have an example of the *guttige* system so common in other parts of the Empire. Castanheda also informs us that this system of letting out gateways on contract yielded immense revenue. While describing the *thānas* around Goa, he says that the *tanadaris* (i.e., *thānyadāra*?) in that region realized an income "of more than 500,000 gold *pardaos*".⁵