History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.409.3

v4.c62.409.3

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).