The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c11.57

c11.57

Who were these tax-paying tenants? It seems that even in the eastern lands the Khattiyas and the Brâhmaṇas—this in spite of their wealth and in spite of the undisputed fact that the greater portion of the land was in their hands—were free from taxes, for in all passages in question the tax-payers are mentioned as belonging to the middle classes.¹ Thus, in the above-quoted Kurudhamma Jātaka, *doṇamāpaka*, the royal tax-collector, who measures the corn to be paid to the king, is afraid lest he should encroach upon the property of the *gahapatika*; to this class also belongs the *seṭṭhi* who is mentioned as the tax-payer (II. 378; IV. 169).