Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t5.128

c4.t5.128

Whatever the methods employed in collecting the taxes, the Collectors were certainly oppressing the poor folk to a very great extent. *Balisādha-kas*,¹ *Balipatiggāhakas*,² *Niggāhakas*,³ *Tuṇḍiyas*⁴ and *Akāsiyas*⁵ are the terms used for these tax-collectors. Never is a word said in praise or sympathy or favour of these officers. On the contrary, bitterest feelings and piteous cries of the oppressed are heard. We repeat what we have said before that it was on sound grounds that the name of these collectors passed into a synonym for importunate demand⁶ or hungry robbers-like⁷ draining the poor earnings of the cultivator.