Hindu Administrative Institutions c9.s2.5

c9.s2.5

The king is further advised to conduct himself in the matter of taxation like a bee sucking honey from flowers, a cowherd tending his cattle, a tigress swallowing her cubs, a leech sucking blood and so forth.³ But here again a caution is given that the people should not be emasculated. It simply means that springs of productive energy must not in the least be disturbed; for to disturb them is to lay the axe at the very root.⁴ Enlightened though these regulations are, still they were not able to observe them to the very letter in practice as is illustrated from the mass of the Buddhist literature and especially the Jātakas. It is said that force was resorted to in case of delay or wilful evasion, and the tax-gatherers harassed the people by forced labour in the fields and gardens.⁵ Unable to bear the burdens people fled from the country and town parts for refuge on the borders of the realm.⁶