Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c41.131

c41.131

§ 281. Another method by which the Paura-Jānapada made the government of a misbehaving king difficult was that the offended Paura and Jānapada would make out a bill and present it to the king to make good all the losses sustained in the kingdom by thefts, dacoities, and the like lawlessness. This s t r a n g e³ procedure is sanctioned even by the Codes of Hindu law. We can understand it only if we bear in mind the Hindu t h e o r y of t a x a t i o n. Taxes were paid to the king as his wages, and the wages were w a g e s f o r p r o t e c t i o n (see § 338 below). The corollary was that if protection which meant both internal and external, was not rendered fully, deductions from the wages of the employee would be made by the employer. The refund bills were presented, according to Yājñavalkya, by the Jānapada, as it is to them, he enjoins on the king, to pay the crown compensation.¹ The passage in the Artha-Śāstra which says that the spies were to prompt the Pauras and Jānapadas to ask for concessions if the frontier barbarians committed raids, also indicates the practice of demanding compensations.