Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c7.t1: Method of Assessment
Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c7.t1
- Language
- English
Method of Assessment
c7.t1.1
A careful study of the inscriptions of the period shows that the principle followed by the Vijayanagar kings with regard to the assessment varied with the crop raised on a particular piece of land and the part of the empire where the crop was raised, for the assessment depended on the locality and fertility of the soil. But one thing is clear that the assessment on a piece of land depended on its gross yield. This general practice is indicated by a copper-plate grant dated A.D. 1673-74 wherein it is stated that a *magamai* tax was levied at the rate of one *nāḷi* on every *kaḷam* of produce.³¹ From an inscription at Tirukkaṭṭaḷai in the Ālaṅguḍi taluk of the Puḍukkōṭṭai State we learn that the government took five-tenths share of the produce from wet and dry lands which were the *devadānam tirunāmattukkāṇi* from Uḍaiyār Tirukkaṭṭaḷai-Īśvaram Uḍaiya Nāyaṉār.³² Thus one of the factors in fixing the assessment on land was the yield of the land.³³ But this practice does not seem to have been either universal in the empire or applicable to all cases both with regard to wet and dry crops.
c7.t1.2
³¹ Cp. 7 of 1923-24.
c7.t1.3
³² I.P.S., 711. A valuable inscription at Palaṅkarai, also in the Puḍukkōṭṭai State, registers an order issued by Śūraiyadēvar *alias* Kulaśēkhara
c7.t1.4
³³ Similarly the government demanded tax only on the quantity of merchandise actually sold. For instance Abdur Razāk observes: "The officers of the customs department levy a duty on the goods of one-fortieth part when a sale is effected; if they are not sold they make no charge on them whatsoever."
c7.t1.5
Another basis of assessment on wet land was the sowing capacity of a unit of land used for wet crops. The inscriptions refer to certain measures, namely kōḷagas and puṭṭis which mean that a piece of land requires so many kōḷagas or puṭṭis of some seed to be sown. We are told for instance that the taxes on a tūm (a cubic measure in the Telugu districts) of land was 8 varāhas. This means in fact that the unit of land requiring a tūm of seed to be sown was assessed at eight varāhas.³⁴ Thus the quantity of seeds required for raising crops on a particular unit of land was also taken into consideration for purposes of assessment by the state.
c7.t1.6
³⁴ 21 of 1927-28.
c7.t1.7
While this was the principle with regard to the assessment on wet lands, the number of ploughs required for tilling the soil was taken into account for purposes of assessment on dry lands. An epigraph coming from Āḍuturai in the Trichinopoly district records the fixing of a graded rate of assessment on each plough of dry land.³⁵ But it does not seem that this was the only principle with regard to the assessment on dry land, for the principle followed for assessment on wet lands was at times followed for the dry lands as well. An inscription from the Kōlār taluk in the district of the same name mentions a khaṇḍuga of dry land,³⁶ which means that the said land had the sowing capacity of a khaṇḍuga.
c7.t1.8
³⁵ 36 of 1913.
c7.t1.9
³⁶ E.C., X, Kl. 39. See Narasinga Rao, Ullal, A Kisamwar Glossary, pp. 164-65, for the different meanings of the term; Saletore, Soc. and Pol. Life in the Vij. Emp., II, p. 442.
c7.t1.10
According to tradition which is incorporated by Buchanan in his Journey through Mysore, South Canara and Coorg Kṛṣṇadēva
c7.t1.11
Toṇḍaimāṇār and his men to the residents of Pālaiyūr nāḍu in obedience to the commands of his father Piccai Toṇḍaimāṇār determining the rate of rent to be collected from the people. Here the phrase விளைஞ்ச நிலத்துக்குள்ள பணம் is of great significance and interest to us, for it clearly shows that assessment on land was calculated on the extent of land harvested (I.P.S., 784). But the reference here is to the rent and not to the tax.
c7.t1.12
Rāya completely surveyed the whole of his empire for purposes of assessment and fixed the rates of taxes; and this tradition is confirmed by an inscription of the period of Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya himself. A record dated A.D. 1513 in the Mysore district registers the grant of a village with all the wet and dry lands according to former measurement.³⁷ According to this inscription there appear to have been two measurements in the district and perhaps in the empire too. One was an old one according to which this particular grant was made, and the other was the new one which appears to have also been in existence on the date of this particular inscription. This piece of evidence clearly shows that the lands were systematically measured in the time of Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya for purposes of assessment. Rice too after studying the Mackenzie Manuscripts came to this conclusion. He observes: "It appears that in the time of Krishna Rāya and Acyuta Rāya the revenues of the Vijayanagar State were first reduced to a regular form checked by ordinances, and a system of accounts and management introduced, calculated to improve the revenue of the empire gradually in yearly amount without distressing the inhabitants."³⁸
c7.t1.13
³⁷ E.C., III, Nj. 195.
c7.t1.14
³⁸ Mys. Gaz., I, p. 578.
c7.t1.15
As regards the measurement of the land there were local variations, and there was no one uniform rod in the empire. The inscriptions of the period mention a large number of measuring rods as having been in use then.³⁹ Even in the same place two rods seem to have been used almost at the same time. For instance from the inscriptions at Tiruppuli we learn that there were two rods in use, one the nāḍaḷavukōl in A.D. 1365⁴⁰ and the other rājavibhāḍankōl in A.D. 1374 and 1438-39⁴¹, and at Tiruppālaivaṇam in the same district we learn that there was in 1390 a measuring rod which was known as the gaṇḍarāyagaṇḍankōl.⁴² The Vijayanagar government, however, tried to introduce some reform in the existing measuring rods, with a view to effect uniformity. According to an inscription at Kūgaiyūr in the South Arcot district, at one time the residents near Vṛddhācalam even went to the extent of migrating from the place when the government did not introduce a change in the measuring rod of the locality. This lithic record registers an order of Vāsudēva Nāyakkar Tirumalai Nāyakkar to the people of Magadai maṇḍalam fixing the length of the rod for measuring the wet and dry lands. Up to 1447, the date of the inscription, "lands in Magada maṇḍalam were measured by a rod 18 feet in length and assessed. This procedure having affected rājagaram and given room for theft and ruin, it was thought that if two feet more were added to the old measuring rod, the tax would become easy of payment and the cultivators would be in a flourishing condition and be able to answer for the rājagaram. On this representation it was ordered that the length of the measuring rod should thereafter be fixed at 20 feet, by increasing the length of the old rod by two feet; that the lands, both wet and dry, should be measured out again by the new rod; and the changes entailed noted in the account books ".⁴³
c7.t1.16
³⁹ Some of the more important of such rods were the nāḍaḷavukōl (18 of 1899; A.D. 1365) at Tiruppukuli in the Chingleput district; rāja-vibhāḍaṇ kōl (107 of 1923; A.D. 1374; 193 of 1916; A.D. 1438-39) at Tiruppukuli and Mēlōttivākkam in the same district; the paṇiraṇḍaḍi kōl, the pole twelve feet long, (I.P.S., 685; A.D. 1388) in the Tirumayyam taluk in the Pudukkōṭṭai State; gaṇḍarāyagaṇḍaṇ kōl (357 of 1928-29; A.D. 1390) in and near Tiruppālaivanam in the Chingleput district; māṇḍyas (Nel. Ins., Cp. 1; A.D. 1390-91) at Paracūr in the Nellore district; the paḍināraḍi kōl, the pole sixteen feet long, (I.P.S.. 687 ; A.D. 1391-92) at Kuṇṇāṇḍārkōyil in the Pudukkōṭṭai State; the Rājavibhāḍaṇ Ālapadinaṭṭaḍi kōl (255 of 1894 ; S.I.I., V, No. 554 ; A.D. 1429) at Tiruvaiyāru in the Tanjore district; the ūñjalpārai śarivutaḍi (583 of 1893) in and about Koḷuñjuvāḍi in the Coimbatore district ; the measuring rod of 30 and 20 feet (274 of 1916) in the South Arcot district ; gaṇḍaragaṇḍaṇ kōl (212 of 1916) at Tiruppukkuli in the Chingleput district ; mūvāyiravaṇ kōl, about 15 feet in length (249 of 1928-29 ; 15th century) in the South Arcot district; taḍi (I.P.S., 715 ; A.D. 1477) marked by a sign used in and around Kāraiyūr in the Pudukkōṭṭai State; the standard rod of 34 feet in the South Arcot district (237 of 1916 ; A.D. 1504); a pole 32 feet long (Nel. Ins., Cp. 16; A.D. 1515) used in the Nellore district; a pole measuring 24 feet (51 of 1887 ; S.I.I., IV. No. 50 in V, p. 54 ; A.D. 1535).
c7.t1.17
⁴⁰ 18 of 1899.
c7.t1.18
⁴¹ 107 of 1923; 193 of 1916.
c7.t1.19
⁴² 357 of 1928-29.
c7.t1.20
⁴³ 97 of 1918; Rep., 1918, para 69.
c7.t1.21
But at Śrīmuṣṇam (South Arcot) we see a rod called the standard rod measuring 34 feet being used about 1504-05.⁴⁴ Thus there were local variations with regard to the unit for measuring lengths, each locality having its own rod. This want of a general uniform rod for the whole empire was the cause of great difficulty felt by the government in fixing a uniform rate of assessment on the land in all the parts of the empire.
c7.t1.22
⁴⁴ 247 of 1916; Rep., para 64.