A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.27.3

c18.27.3

Large tanks were made to serve areas where there were no natural streams, and the proper maintenance of these tanks was regularly provided for. The extension of agriculture was encouraged at all times by granting special facilities and tax concessions for specified periods to people who reclaimed land and brought it under cultivation for the first time. The prosperity of the cultivator depended to some extent on the seasons, but to a larger measure on the conditions of his tenure and on the tax-collecting agency. Tenant conditions were probably easier on lands set apart for religious and charitable uses and of which temples, *mathas* and Brahmins were the landlords. But where rights were assigned to high officials and nobles, or where, as often happened, the collection of the land tax was farmed, both the rate of tax and the manner of collecting it might have pressed hard on the cultivator. Even in the heyday of liberal and efficient administration—under the imperial Cholas—there were complaints of the tax-gatherer's oppressive methods; and after the weakening of Vijayanagar, under the Nāyaks, the ryots were generally compelled to purchase the state's share of the grain at prices arbitrarily fixed by the tax-gatherer. Closely allied to agriculture was cattle-raising and dairy farming, and land was set apart for pasture;