Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c10.8

c10.8

Such grants of land were also made to village officers in lieu of salaries, but these were inalienable by sale or mortgage (*vikrayādhānavarjam*). The scale of salaries payable to the rural officers of different grades in the shape of grants of land is thus fixed in both *Manu-Smriti* [VII. 119] and the *Māhābhārata* [XII. 87, 6-8]: The lord of 10 villages is to be given 1 *kula* of land, defined to be "as much land as can be cultivated with 12 oxen;" the lord of 20 villages, 5 *kulas*; of 100 villages, one entire village; and of 1,000 villages, one entire town.