Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c7.s2.24

c7.s2.24

Sewell's remark is too sweeping. Though we have much strong epigraphical and literary evidence to show that the taxes were heavy at certain periods, and that the people suffered much during such periods we may not be correct in taking that such oppression on the part of the government was either continuous or universal. Complaints about heavy taxation and oppression by the officials were due, as the inscriptions themselves say, to the occupation of the Kannaḍiyas. The period of the Sāḷuvas was one of oppression of the people, when taxation was heavy, and was perhaps combined with rigorous collection. Later too the people were oppressed more by the governors than by the imperial government itself. Such oppression was felt more owing to the method adopted with regard to the collection of the revenue than to the inherent nature of the taxes themselves.