State and Government in Ancient India c20.62

c20.62

This is clearly proved by some concrete cases from south India, where we find the lands of Brāhmaṇa owners being sold away for the non-payment of the government dues. One record (*c.* 1229 A. D.) shows that even the Brāhmaṇa donees of *agrahāra* villages had to pay interest on the land tax remaining in arrears. The state, however, did not wait for more than three months; at the end of this period it would sell away the shares of the defaulters.³ Another record shows that the period of waiting was often extended to two years,⁴ at the end of which the sale could not be stopped except by the full payment of the state dues. We have no such cases recorded in northern India, but we shall not be far wrong in stating that the exemption from taxation seems to have been enjoyed by the entire Brāhmaṇa community only on rare occasions. As a general rule all Brāhmaṇas had to pay taxes, excepting those who were learned and poor and had received no state patronage.