State and Government in Ancient India c20.41

c20.41

Equally sound principles have been enunciated about partial or total remission in the normal taxation, when the situation justified such concession. Both the *Arthaśāstra* and *Śukranīti* recommend that if enterprising persons bring fresh land under cultivation or seek to make it more fertile and productive by irrigating it with water from tanks built by themselves, the state should charge only a nominal tax in the beginning and gradually raise it to the normal rate during a period of four or five years.⁵ There is ample evidence to show that governments in ancient India were actually following this advice down to the 18th century.¹