State and Government in Ancient India c23.s6.27

c23.s6.27

We should however also note that there are cases on record of the Government granting relief in order to enable the tenants to overcome natural calamities like floods, famines, pestilences, etc. When in 1402 A. D. the Kāverī overflowed its banks and deposited heavy amount of silt, farmers were unable to carry on the cultivation and had to abandon the area as uncultivable. Government, however, soon took steps to rehabilitate the agriculturists by granting them various types of concessions in the rate and collection of land taxes (*S.I.E.R.*, No 629 of 1923). If a village suffered by plunder or civil war, a concession in the land tax was usually granted for a specific period.