Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t5.85

c4.t5.85

We turn to another Jātaka.⁶ Here the details are more informative. We are introduced to three important personalities With the remaining eight of the list we are not at present concerned...These are: the Rajjuggāhaka amacca (shortened in the gāthā⁷ into Rajjuko), the Seṭṭhi and the Doṇamāpaka Mahāmatta (or briefly, as in the gāthā, Doṇa). The Rajjuggāhaka amacca, whose title literally means the rope-holding minister, is seen measuring a Janapada field by holding one end of the rope tied to a stick, the other end being held by the owner of the field (khettasāmika). He sees a crab's lurk-hole at the spot where he wants to pitch the stick and the thought comes to him: "If I put the stick in the hole, the crab in the hole will be hurt; if I put it on the other side (purato), the king's property (rañño santakam) will lose; and if I put it on this side (orato), the farmer will lose."¹ This again is sufficient to show that the official measurement of land was connected with the assessment of the land revenue.