History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c12.7.3

v1.c12.7.3

The words निधि and क्लृप्त followed by the words उपनिधि and उपक्लृप्त meaning the same things but of a minor kind suggest that उद्रंग and उपरिकर may also be taken to be the same tax on the chief produce viz. that of land and on minor products such as flowers, fruit, milk, etc. brought for sale as is provided for in the Manu Smriti. How the उद्रंग or land tax was levied, whether by apportioning from the actual produce or by average yield, is not clear. Land was certainly measured, for the measurements of land are often given in inscriptions of the time. Thus in Cop. Ins. Vol. III No. 28 grant of Dharasena p. 166 lands in several villages with particular names even are given and the measurements mentioned are Padāvarta Śatam (100) or Padāvarta Navati (90) or Padāvarta Aṣṭāviṃśati (28). Padāvarta probably means so many square paces, pada being not the actual foot but the pace or two feet. These fields are small indeed but they belong, it must be remembered, to Gujarat where land is very fertile. For other less fertile tracts the measurements must be different, for instance the grant of Pravarasena (Corp. Ins. Vol. III 241) made in the Bhojakata Rājya (or modern Berar) a village is measured by राजमान or royal measure. What this royal measure was is not mentioned; the word used is राजमानिक. भूमिसहस्रायभि: 8000 and Dr. Fleet thinks that the name of the measure was Bhūmi. Apparently however भूमि is a plot of land.