History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.432
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.432
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Śulka is of two kinds, what is levied on goods carried by land and what is levied on goods carried by water (Mit. on Yāj. II. 263). Gaut. X. 26 and Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 29 state that the śulka is 1/20th part on merchandise for sale (bought and sold in the country itself) which is interpreted by some (like Haradatta and Nandapaṇḍita) as meaning that 5 per cent of the price of articles sold should be taken by the king as tax, while the Rājanītiprakāśa (p. 264) explains that the king is entitled only to five per cent of the difference between the cost price and the sale price of merchandise. Manu VIII. 398 also is susceptible of these two interpretations, as the commentaries of Medhātithi and Kullūka show. The Viṣṇu Dh. S. (III. 29-30) prescribes that the king takes one-tenth on merchandise produced in his own country and one-twentieth on goods imported from a foreign country. Yāj. II. 261 says that the śulka on goods is twentieth part of the prices of the goods. Kauṭ. (II. 21) in his chapter on the superintendent of tolls (śulkādhyakṣa) sets out several rules, of which a few interesting ones are given here.
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Commodities intended for marriage or taken by a bride from her parents to her husband or meant as presents or for the purpose of sacrifices or the *accouchement* of women or for the worship of gods, or for the ceremonies of *caula*, *upanayana*, *godāna*, or for the observance of a *vrata* or for the consecration of a person for a sacrifice and for other special ceremonies shall be allowed to go free of tolls. Whatever commodities would cause harm to the realm or are useless should be destroyed; whatever is of great benefit and seeds not easily available should be allowed to be imported without charge²⁴⁹. He further says (II. 22) that śulka is levied on exports and imports of merchandise and that on imports the tax will be one-fifth of the price of the commodities (as a general rule) and prescribes varying rates (1/6, 1/10, 1/15, 1/20, 1/25) on different kinds of articles. In II. 28 (on the superintendent of shipping) Kauṭilya gives further rules some of which have been already noted. He prescribes rules for ferries also, viz. that brāhmaṇas, ascetics, children, very old people, sick men, messengers, pregnant women are to be provided with free passes by the superintendent enabling them to use the ferries. A man with a load and small animals were to pay one māṣa at a ferry, a cow or a horse two māṣas and so on. The Mānasollāsa (II. 4. vv. 374-376 p.
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62) prescribes that the king should well guard all harbours (*velā-pura*) that are near the sea, that when the boats of sailors residing in his own country return to the harbour the king should charge one-tenth (of the price of goods brought) as the duty and that when foreign boats are driven to his harbour by an unfavourable wind, the king should confiscate all their merchandise or may give a little to the owners of those boats. In this connection a very interesting inscription may be referred to. The Moṭupalli pillar Inscription²⁵⁰ of the Kākatiya king Gaṇapatideva (of 1244–45 A. D.) issues (E. I. vol. XII p. 195) a charter of security (abhaya-śāsana) to the sailors who ply between towns in different countries, islands and continents: ‘when ships that made voyages from one country to another were driven or were shattered or touched at a place that was not meant as a place of call, owing to unfavourable winds, former kings forcibly took away all commodities therein such as gold, elephants, horses &c.; but we, considering that wealth is dearer than life itself, have with kindness decided to give everything except the fixed śulka to those sailors who undertake the great venture of crossing the sea, so that thereby we shall secure fame and righteousness; the śulka fixed is as follows’. About *śulka* to be levied on goods brought by the sea the Baud. Dh. S. (I. 10. 15–16) prescribes that it is 10 per cent of the cargo except one best article (which is totally exempted).
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In the Kharepatan grant of the Śilāra king Raṭṭarāja dated śake 930 it is provided that one golden *gadyāṇa* was levied as duty on each vessel that came from another country (dvīpāntarāyāta-vahitrāt) and one golden *dharaṇa* had to be paid on each vessel coming from the district of Kandaḷamūlīya excepting Cemulya (modern Cheul) and Candrapura. Vide E. I. vol. III. p. 292 at p. 301. Śukra (IV. 2. 109–111) lays down some very reasonable rules viz. on the same commodity śulka is to be taken in the same country by the king only once and never more than once; the king may take either 1/16, 1/20 or 1/32 from the vendee or vendor; no śulka is to be taken from the vendor when he has to sell his goods at the same price at which he bought them or for less than the cost price; the king should always take from the buyer the proper śulka after seeing what profit he is going to make. Nār. (sambhūya-samutthāna verses 14–15) lays down that whatever is to be used by śrotriyas (brāhmaṇas learned in the Vedas) for domestic purposes is exempt, but not what they may employ in trade; the gifts received by brāhmaṇas, the property of stage-players, whatever is carried on a man’s shoulders—on all these no śulka must be levied. The exemption of brāhmaṇas and others from taxation has already been dealt with in H. Dh. vol. II. pp. 143–145. Gaut. X. 9–12, Āp. Dh. S. II. 10. 26. 10–16, Vas. I. 42–46 and 19. 23–24, Manu. VIII.
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394 exempt a learned brāhmaṇa, the women of all varṇas, all boys before the signs of puberty appear, all those who stay with a teacher for study, ascetics who are intent on dharma, śūdras that do menial work such as washing the feet of higher varṇas, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the diseased, the cripple, an old man of 70 years or more. Though these really required more protection than most people, humanity and higher feelings made them exempt from taxes from very ancient times. The claims to exemption were probably exaggerated and not respected in practice. For example, Nārada (VI. 14) states that the king is not to levy tolls or customs duties on articles required by śrotriyas for domestic use but if they engaged in trade they had to pay taxes on merchandise.²⁵¹ The Mit. on Yāj. II. 4 states that the six exemptions mentioned in Gaut. (VIII. 12-13) apply only to a very learned brāhmaṇa and not to all brāhmaṇas. Manu. VII 133 provides that a king even when he has lost everything should not levy a tax on śrotriyas and relying on this the Vaijayantī explains Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 26 as referring only to learned brāhmaṇas. The Rāmāyaṇa (III. 6. 14)251a states, differing from other authorities. that the king shares one-fourth of the merit of *munis* (ascetics) dwelling in his kingdom. There was a corresponding liability on the king; viz. he shared half and half in the demerit due to the sins committed by the subjects that are not properly restrained by him (Yāj. I. 337).
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Manu and Viṣṇu. Dh. S. III. 28 and Viṣṇudharmottara II. 61. 25 say that he reaps the sixth part of the sin of his subjects.