State and Government in Ancient India c16.122

c16.122

This department also engaged a number of toll superintendents (*śulkādhyaksha*).³ Their offices were naturally located at the town gates, where all merchandise had to be shown for the assessment of toll dues before it was imported into the town for sale. Sometimes the sales were effected at the toll office itself. Superintendents had the power to punish different kinds of frauds usally practised by cunning merchants to escape the customs duties. There were also superintendents of weights and measures, who tested and stamped the weights used in the market.⁴ It is quite likely that the duties of the superintendents of the market, the tolls and the weights and measures might have been combined in one officer in small places. In villages, the headman alone might have probably discharged these duties.