Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c7.s6.6

c7.s6.6

¹⁸ l. 2506 f In the Jatakas the tax collectors are mentioned as hungry robbers draining the poor earnings of the cultivator. We come across references when the subjects, oppressed by taxation took their wives and families and wandered in the forest like wild beasts; where once stood villages, there now were none, and the people through the fear of the king's officers by day did not venture to dwell in their houses but fencing them about with thorn branches, as soon as the day broke, they disappeared into the forest (Fick, op. cit., p. 120 f.).