Hindu Administrative Institutions c9.s2.14

c9.s2.14

It has already been shown that Kauṭalya has not sacrificed scruples of conscience in enunciating principles of taxation. As befits a statesman, he realizes the full responsibility and has advocated a graduated system of taxation. The devices suggested are based on the principle of least sacrifice and they are at once simple and popular. They are, in other words, ‘the soft tricks’ that find mention in the Rājadharma section of the Mahābhārata. By them the burden was made to fall proportionately on all, and they subserved the ends of even distribution. That is, people did not feel taxes to be a strain on their purse.¹