Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c7.s2.30

c7.s2.30

Thus we see that side by side with the inscriptions which record the oppressive taxes, and the consequent difficulties of the people which drove them to the extent of either selling their lands to pay the government dues, or, where there was some organization among them, of offering civil resistance to the government, or where the people were not well organised, of migrating elsewhere from the district, there are some others which show that taxation was not so very heavy under the Vijayanagar government. But it cannot be said that the Vijayanagar taxes conformed to the ancient proportion of one-sixth, for many of the kings took advantage of every opportunity to increase the revenues of the state, and collected their dues with the utmost rigour. But it has been the practice to exaggerate the oppressive character of the taxes imposed on the people. Really the people were opposed to the method of collection rather than the items of taxes or the burden of taxation, for it is the method of collection which largely makes the people feel taxes either heavy or light.