The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t23.1

c11.t23.1

We shall now proceed to analyze the revenues of the Maurya Empire. One of the functions of the *gopa*, the officer at the lowest rung of the executive hierarchy, was to register the probable dues of the villagers in "working men"⁴ along with taxes, tolls and fines. It is not clear if we are to understand that the empire used to rece[broken line] in "services" like the Roman republic in its earlier sta[broken line] instance, as is recommended by Viṣṇu,¹ Manu,² or Śukr[broken line] henes's account of India, again, we read that one of the [broken line] vital statistics kept by the census officials of the municipal of Pâtaliputra was the levy of a tax.⁴ If some particular ta[broken line] singled out because of this statement it was evidently a poll ta[broken line] citizens per head.