Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s34.1.2

c9.s34.1.2

In the words of Arrian : ‘In times of civil war the soldiers are not allowed to molest the husbandmen or ravage their lands : hence, while the former are fighting and killing each other as they can, the latter may be seen close at hand tranquilly pursuing their work,—perhaps ploughing, or gathering in their crops, pruning the trees, or reaping the harvest.’ This does not seem to be an idealised picture, but a matter of general practice and common knowledge in ancient India ; witness the telling simile in an old Buddhist commentary which says that philosophers while destroying the opinions of their adversaries must carefully respect the principles of logic which are useful to all, just as kings, while destroying the soldiers of their enemies, respect the field labourer who is the common help of both armies¹. The cultivators paid a determinate share of the produce to the state by way of rent for the land they cultivated but did not own. On this important subject², we may set down the actual words of the Greek authors. Arrian says simply : ‘they cultivate the soil and pay tribute to the kings and the independent cities’. Diodorus is more elaborate, but by no means more helpful ; he says : ‘They pay a land-tribute to the king, because all India is the property of the Crown, and no private person is permitted to own land. Besides the land-tribute, they pay into the royal treasury a fourth part of the produce of the soil’.