The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c14.27

c14.27

Treasure-trove belonged to the king. Of property inadvertently lost and afterwards found, one-sixth, one-tenth, or at least one-twentieth should go to the king. Lost property, unclaimed for three years, should lapse to the king. Of treasure discovered underground, one-half should go to the king and the other half distributed among Brāhmaṇas. Besides all this, numerous petty dues were levied at ferries: ". . . an (empty) cart shall be made to pay one paṇa, a man's (load) half a paṇa, an unloaded man one-half of a quarter." Carts laden with merchandise should pay according to the value of the goods. In addition to these contributions Manu hints at some state monopolies, as also at some restrictions on exports and perhaps also imports. Those who violated these rules were to suffer the confiscation of their whole property.¹ No theorist could merely invent this extensive list. Whatever the embellishments, Manu is pointing to the extraordinarily large number of sources which the state had begun to tap by the second century A.D. to fill its coffers. He may again be building on facts when he exempts learned Brāhmaṇas, old persons past seventy, the blind, cripples and idiots from taxation.²