The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c15.s3.20

c15.s3.20

We find this hint of Manu’s fully elucidated in the *Arthaśâstra*. “Just as fruits are gathered from a garden,” says Kautilya,⁸ “as often as they become ripe, so revenue shall be collected as often as it becomes ripe.” This principle of continuous levy might be indiscriminately observed in a suicidal fashion. Hence the sober advice that the collection of revenues or fruits must not be allowed “while they are unripe,” for there is a danger lest their “source be injured” to the immense peril of the state. In the *Mahâbhârata’s* phraseology the *râṣtra* must not be “over-milked.”⁹