History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.409
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.409
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Kauṭ. (II. 1) states that a king whose treasury is depleted preys upon the citizens and the rural population and (II. 8) very²³¹ rightly remarks that all undertakings depend upon kośa (financial position of the king), therefore the king must pay the first attention to kośa. Gautama (as cited by S. V. p. 46) holds that kośa is the basis or support of the other six elements of the State. The Śāntiparva 119. 16 calls upon the king to guard his finances with great effort, since kings depend upon kośa, which tends to the prosperity (of the kingdom). Kām. XIII. 33 states that it is on the lips of all that the king is dependent on kośa. Śānti 133 contains a eulogy of kośa. The Viṣṇudharmottara II. 61. 17 says that kośa is the root of the tree of State. The two great pillars of the Indian States in ancient India were the revenue and the army. Manu VII. 65 says that kośa and the government of the realm depend on the king i. e. they should be the personal concern of the king. Yāj. (I. 327–328) recommends that the king should personally look into the income and expenditure every day and keep in his treasury buildings whatever is brought by those who are appointed to bring gold and wealth. Kām. V. 77 and Śukra I. 276–278 say the same. The Rājataraṅgiṇī (VII. 507–508) tells us that king Kalaśa of Kashmir (1063–1089 A. D.) kept accounts like a merchant, closely watched income and expenditure and had a clerk by his side with chalk and *bhūrja* (birch leaf) to write upon.
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The principal means of filling the treasury is taxation. It is therefore necessary to consider first the principles of taxation as evolved by our writers. The first principle was that the king could not levy, according to the smṛtis, taxes at his pleasure or sweet will, that the rates of taxes which the king was entitled to levy were fixed by the smṛtis and varied only according to the commodity and also according as the times were normal or there was danger of invasion or some other calamity impending. For example, Gaut. X. 24, Manu VII. 130, Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 22-23 declare that the king may ordinarily take a sixth part of the grain-crops or produce of the soil, but Kauṭ. (V. 2), Manu (X. 118), Śānti 87, Śukra IV. 2. 9-10 permit the king to take even one-third or one-fourth part of the crops in times of distress (*āpad*). It has however to be noted that Kauṭilya requires the king to beg (*yāceta*) of the people for this heavy taxation, he employs the word *praṇaya* (request) for such demands, such taxation was not to be levied from inferior lands, and he expressly says that such a demand for excessive taxation is to be made only once and not twice in the same distress.²³² Śānti (87. 26-33) contains a specimen of a long address to be given to the people when a king demands higher taxation in danger (such as 'if the enemy invades you, you will lose all including even your wives, the enemy will not restore to you what he robs you of' &c.).
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The word 'praṇaya' occurs in this sense in the Junāgadh Inscription of Rudradāman (E. I. vol. VIII. p. 36 ll. 15-16). Another principle laid down in somewhat poetical and picturesque language is that taxation should be felt by those taxed as light and not heavy or excessive. The Udyogaparva²³³ (34. 17-18) states 'just as a bee draws honey but at the same time leaves the flowers uninjured, so the king should take wealth from men without harming them. One (a bee) may search each flower (for honey) but should not cut the very root just like a garland-maker, but not like a coal-maker'. Manu (VII. 129 and 140) laconically puts the matter thus 'just as the leech, the calf and the bee take their sustenance little by little, so must the king draw from his kingdom annual taxes little by little. Let the king not cut up his own root (by levying no taxes) nor the root of others by²³⁴ excessive greed'. Śānti (88 4-6) states that the king should draw (taxes) from the realm lightly in the way the bee draws honey from the trees, he should do so in the way of the calf and should not bruise the udders (as the calf does not). Those verses also refer to the action of the leech, of the tigress carrying her cubs between her jaws and the rat gnawing at the feet of sleeping men. These ideas pervaded society so much that the same figure of the bee is instanced as regards the Buddhist bhikkhu's importunity for alms in the Dhammapada (verse 49).
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The king should act like a gardener who prepares garlands without harming the trees and their leaves and should not act like one who prepares coals from trees (Śānti 71. 20)²³⁵. Manu VII. 139 requires that the king should not through greed tax the subjects heavily, as he would thereby cut off the roots (i. e. prosperity and contentment) of the people, nor should he cut off his own roots (i. e. reduce himself to bankruptcy) by levying no taxes. A third principle of taxation was that when increasing taxes the rise should be gradual and a little at a time (Śānti 88. 7-8). Taxes were to be recovered at a proper time and proper place (Śānti 88. 12 and Kām. V. 83-84)²³⁶. When taxing traders the king should make allowance for the price they had to pay, for the chances of selling the commodity (in his kingdom), the distance over which the merchandise was brought, what they must have spent for their food and condiments and the cost of guarding the merchandise (Manu VII. 127 = Śānti 87. 13-14)²³⁷. In the case of artisans, before taxing them, the king has to pay regard to the labour and skill involved and to the necessaries of life required by them (Śānti 87. 15). Every one, however poor, must contribute something to the finances of the realm. Manu (VII.
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137-138) says that even a very poor man who maintains himself by following some occupation should be asked to contribute every year something in the nature of *kara* (a tax), while workers (like cooks), artisans (like blacksmiths), śūdras who subsist by manual labour (like porters) should be asked to contribute one day's work to the king in a month. Vide Gaut. X. 31-34, Viṣṇu Dh. Ś. III. 32 for the same. But Śukra IV. 2. 121 says that workers and artisans should do one day's work for the king gratis in a fortnight. Gaut. X. 34 adds that the king must supply them with food on the day they work gratis. The importance of a gold and silver reserve was well understood. Kām. (IV. 62-64) says²³⁸ that the king's *kośa* should have many sources for filling it, but few outlets of expenditure, it should be full of all desired kinds of wealth, guarded by trusty officers, rich in pearls, gold and jewels, it should have been acquired according to *śāstric* rules, be capable of bearing great strain of expenditure and that *kośa* is to be preserved only for the purpose of securing the two goals viz. *dharma* and *artha*, for affording maintenance to the servants engaged by the king and as a safeguard against calamities. Śukra IV. 2-3 remarks that *kośa* is accumulated for the upkeep of the army and for the benefit of the people and for performing sacrifices. Gaut. X. 28-29, Manu VII. 128, VIII. 306-308, Nār.
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(prakīrṇaka 48) and others say, as has been already stated, that taxation is meant for the protection of the subjects and that it is the king's wages (*vetana*) for the protection he affords. Manu IX. 305 compares the king taking taxes to the sun that produces vapour from the seas (in order to return it in the form of rain, as the Raghuvaṁśa I. 18 very happily puts it). Kām. (V. 78-79) enumerates eight principal sources (called *aṣṭavarga*) of filling the treasury through the action of the heads of the departments viz. agriculture, trade-routes (both on land and water), the capital, water embankments, catching of elephants, working mines and collecting gold &c., levying wealth (from the rich), founding towns and villages in uninhabited spots. The Mānasollāsa (II. 4 verses 539-540 p. 77) advises the king to spend ordinarily three-fourths of the yearly revenues and save one-fourth. Śukra (I. 315-317) prescribes that the king should save 1/6 of his total annual income and should spend 1/2 of the whole on the army and one-twelfth each on charity (to the learned, the poor and helpless &c.), ministers, inferior officials, and his private purse or expenses. Śukra IV. 2. 26 requires the king to have as much stock of grain as would be required for three years' consumption in his country. In IV. 2.
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13 he sets before the king the impossible ideal that his treasury should be so full that he can support his army for 20 years if no taxes from agriculture or tolls were raised or no fines were recovered. The Mānasollāsa (II. 4. 394, 397 p. 64) says that the king's treasury should be always full of gold, silver, jewels, ornaments and costly clothes, that pure gold in the form of niṣkas (coins) or bars or ornaments should be held in the treasury. Kauṭ. (IV. 3) as stated above permitted the king in famines to make the rich disgorge their wealth. In V. 2 he remarks that if after making special requests for additional taxation, when the treasury is empty and some danger is impending, to the cultivators, merchants, wine-sellers, prostitutes and those who rear pigs, poultry, cattle &c., the king may request the rich to give as much of their gold as they can and the king may honour them by bestowing on them a post at his court, or the dignity of an umbrella, a turban or some decoration in return for their wealth²³⁹. He permits the king in calamities to take away the wealth of the corporations (*saṅghas*) of heretics and of temples also, to set up all of a sudden on one night a god or a platform (caitya) for a holy tree or a sacred place for a man of miraculous powers and provide for fairs and merry gatherings there and secure the necessary money²⁴⁰. He recommends many other tricks and dodges for securing money, which are passed over.
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Perhaps the only redeeming feature of these devices is that Kauṭilya is careful to point out that they were to be employed only against the seditious and the irreligious and not against others (V. 2 ‘*evaṁ dūṣyeṣvadharmiṣeṣu varteta netareṣu*’). Vide Nītivākyāmṛta (kośa-samuddeśa) p. 205 for similar provisions to replenish a depleted treasury. The Paraśurāmapratāpa (Rājavallabhakāṇḍa, folio 27 b) quotes a verse which recommends resort to alchemy for replenishing the treasury240a. Śukra IV. 2. 11 advises the king when in financial difficulties to promise interest to the rich and take their wealth and to return it with interest when the difficulties are got over²⁴¹. Śānti (88. 29–30) asks²⁴² the king to honour the wealthy men in his kingdom, since they constitute an important element of the realm and are the most eminent among all beings and to request them ‘confer along with me favours on the people’.