State and Government in Ancient India c18.s1.106

c18.s1.106

Let us now see how the village councils used to finance these different activities. There is sufficient evidence that the Central Government used to permit the village council to spend a small percent of the revenues collected in the village for financing its own activities. Evidence of the Maratha period shows that the village council was permitted to utilise about 10 to 15 per cent of the village revenues for works of public utility and village defence.² Probably the same was the case in the Hindu period, though we have no direct evidence upon the point. Fines imposed by the village court upon the offenders were another source of revenue.³ Village councils had also the right to impose aditional taxes and cesses. The Assembly of Nalur in Tamil country borrowed 25 *kāsus* from a local temple in the 10th century A. D., and in return assigned to it the right of collecting certain rates from the stall in the bazars near the temple.⁴ The residents of Salotgi in Karnāṭak agreed to pay in 945 A.D. certain cesses at the time of marriage and other ceremonies for the maintenance of a local college.⁵ The same was done by the villagers of Patan in Khandesh for a similar purpose in 1069 A. D. Northern India also supplies numerous instances of such local cesses levied by the village communities and trade guilds for financing works of public utility.⁶