Public Administration in Ancient India c16.1

c16.1

IN the earliest period of Indian history the State perhaps depended for its own support on the voluntary contributions of the people. But some method of compulsory contribution must have been found necessary in India as soon as a more improved form of government had come into existence. The early tax-system, however, was a very simple one, and the evolution of a complex system of Public Finance was doubtless a slow and gradual process. By the fourth century B.C. the system of Public Finance had reached a very advanced stage of development, as is evidenced by Chānakya’s Arthasāstra and the Brahmanical and Buddhistic religious works.