The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c15.117.3

c15.117.3

From the fiscal point of view, the importance of these provisions is that they indicate a distinct source of revenue in the form of levies. It will appear that the petty dues, particularly, those in kind, charged from a village went to pay the village headman and other local officers. Manu (VII, 199) says that the salary of a village headman should ordinarily be those articles which the villagers ought to furnish daily to the king such as food, drink, fuel.² Viṣṭika is forced labour which was counted among the regular royal dues. One of the commonest features of ancient Indian grants is that the pieces of land granted are declared free from the obligation of supplying forced labour. The grants of feudatories, too, contain that provision.¹ Daśāparādhāḥ refers to fines levied for ten offences, viz., (a) three offences of the body—theft, murder and adultery, (b) four offences of speech—harsh, untruthful, libellous, and pointless words, and (c) three offences of mind—coveting other's property, thinking of wrong, and devotion to what is not true. This traditional classification throws little light on the actual administration of justice. Thinking could hardly have been punished. Murder would have carried a higher penalty than fines. The term daśāparādhāḥ is only a generic name for sins and in its administrative sense, only means judicial fines in general.