The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c13.s1.35

c13.s1.35

These had to be found in the agricultural productivity of the kingdom. Now the king, whatever the legal theory, was not in practice the exclusive owner of the soil. In fact, it would be misleading to think of exclusive individual ownership in our sense at all. Rather, the situation should be viewed as one where the members of the community hold differential rights in the productivity of the same lands. This is clearly demonstrated by the traditional “division of the grain heap” at harvest time, our of which the king’s share had to come.⁵⁷ This was a most intricate system of shares and deductions both from the standing and from the harvested crop. The complexity was enhanced by the use of both proportions and absolute measures. The details varied from place to place, but the procedure was easy to handle for the local participants, because the shares were allotted while going along and no aggregate data were required. By the same token, however, it is hardly possible to reduce the king’s—or any other’s—share to a manageable numerical formula, a problem that haunted the British as well as the pre-British land revenue administration.