History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.409.7

v4.c62.409.7

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.