History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.428

v4.c62.428

The principal and perennial sources of income to the state were three viz. the king's share of the produce of land, tolls and customs duties, fines levied from wrongdoers or defeated litigants (vide Śānti 71. 10 and Śukra IV. 2. 13). From this and from Manu X. 119-120 it appears that the principal tax-payers were agriculturists, traders, manual workers and artisans. In Manu VIII. 307 quoted in the Daṇḍaviveka of Vardhamāna (p. 5) it is said that the king who, without affording protection, levies *bali*, *kara*, *śulka*, *pratibhoga* (*pratibhāga* in the printed smṛti) and *daṇḍa* (fines) goes at once to hell and Vardhamāna explains *kara* as the dues recovered every month from villagers and city-dwellers (every month or twice a year in Bhādrapada or Pauṣa according to Kullūka), *śulka* as the twelfth share recovered from traders, pratibhoga as the dues in the form of fruits, flowers and vegetables presented every day. A few remarks on these and other taxes must be made here. Manu VII. 130, Gaut. X. 24, Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 22, Mānasollāsa (II. 3. 163 p. 44) and several others prescribe that the king is entitled to the 6th, 8th or 12th part (only sixth in Viṣṇu, also 10th in Gaut.) of the yield of grain from land. Bṛhaspati and the Viṣṇudharmottara²⁴⁶ (II. 61. 60-61) quoted in the Rājanītiprakāśa (pp. 262-263) make it clear under what circumstances these different shares are to be taken: viz. the king takes 1/6 of *śūkadhānya* (awned or bearded grain like wheat and barley), 1/8 from *śimbīdhānya* (grain in pods), 10th part from crops grown on land that was fallow for many years, 1/8th from lands 'sown in the rainy season and one-sixth from lands that have spring crops. The tax was to be paid once every year or once in six months according to the custom of the country. The varying rates prescribed by Kauṭilya have been indicated in describing the duties of the sītādhyakṣa. Śukra (IV. 2. 121-122) gives a salutary rule that if a cultivator constructs a tank, a well or an artificial water-course or brings under cultivation land previously fallow, the king should not levy a tax thereon till the person making the expenditure has recovered twice the amount spent by him. Kauṭ. (II. 1) provides that the king may show favour (*anugraha*) to the cultivators by supplying them with seed, cattle and money and that they should return the advances by easy instalments and that the king shall bestow favours and remissions (*parihāra*) in such a way that they might tend to swell the treasury and not tend to its depletion.²⁴⁷ It has already been stated that according to the smṛtis the ordinary share of the king was one-sixth, but that in case of the danger of invasion or similar calamity he was allowed to raise it to one-fourth. Megasthenes (Fragment I, p. 42) says that no person is permitted to own land and that besides the land tribute people pay into the royal treasury a fourth part of the produce. This shows that the tax on land was very heavy in the times of Candragupta probably owing to his wars to drive away the Greeks and the huge armies that he had to employ. Manu VII. 130, Gaut. X. 25, Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 24, Mānasollāsa (II. 3. 163 p. 44) hold that the king is entitled to the 50th part of the cattle reared by herdsmen and of the interest earned by those who lend money at interest. This last appears to be analogous to modern income-tax. The Śukranītisāra IV. 2. 128 makes the tax to be 1/32 on the interest earned by money-lending.²⁴⁸ Viṣṇu adds cloth to these two. Manu VII. 131-132, Gaut. X. 27, Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 25, Viṣṇudharmottara II. 61. 61-63 and Mānasollāsa lay down that the king is entitled to a sixth part of trees, meat, honey, clarified butter, perfumes (like sandal-wood), medicinal plants (like *guḍūcī*), rasa (salt &c.), flowers, roots (like turmeric), fruits, leaves (like palm leaves), vegetables, grass, hides, articles manufactured from bamboo slips, earthenware, articles prepared from stones. Viṣṇu adds deer hides to these.