History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.834

v4.c63.834

The Vyavahāranirṇaya, after quoting Bṛ. and Vyāsa, very lucidly explains what is meant by sale, purchase, exchange &c. Gold and the like which a man desires to render or pay is called price, while land, house and the like are said to be 'paṇya' (saleable thing). Purchase means acceptance of a thing preceded by the offering of a price (either paid or agreed to be paid); sale is the acceptance of a price preceded by the offering of a saleable thing. *Parivṛtti* or *parivartanā* is the acceptance of an article for an article of the same kind; if there is a disparity in value between the two articles exchanged the exchange is called '*avakraya*'; when there is an exchange of two articles of different kinds but of the same value it is called *vinimaya*.⁸⁷⁸ The Vyavahāranirṇaya makes elaborate provisions for sale of land at the order of the king for non-payment of land tax. It quotes Prajāpati (p. 350) to the effect that the purchaser at such a sale must offer half or at least one-fourth of the real price of the field and that the original owner could get back his property sold for the royal dues by paying the full price to the purchaser up to three generations. Other elaborate rules on the same subject are passed over here for reasons of space. These provisions indicate that ownership in cultivated fields belonged to individuals and that the State had only the right to levy taxes. Vide H. of Dh. vol. II. pp. 865-869 and Kāt. quoted above (on p. 196) for a discussion of the theory of the State's ownership of all lands. Taking into consideration the Pūrvamīmāṁsā texts, the Vyavahāramayūkha and the verses of Kāt. and others it appears that the State was deemed to be the owner of all lands as a general proposition, but that where individuals or bodies of persons had been in long possession of lands that they cultivated, the ownership of the State was qualified and restricted only to the recovery of a tax or share of crops and that individuals and groups that had cultivated lands in their possession were regarded practically as owners of the land subject to the liability to pay land tax and to the right of the State to sell the land for non-payment of tax. The Vyavahāranirṇaya quotes Bṛ. and another smṛti text that śūdras, persons excommunicated for grave sins (*patita*), cāṇḍālas and desperate characters cannot be allowed to possess the lands of a brāhmaṇa by sale, partition or in lieu of wages;⁸⁷⁹ the same work further quotes Vyāsa, Bhāradvāja and Bṛ. that when land is sold there is a right of pre-emption in favour of full brothers, sapiṇḍas, samānodakas, sagotras, neighbours, creditors and one's co-villagers in order.⁸⁸⁰