Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s13.1

c23.s13.1

It is not for us to decide whether the revenue derived from lands by Hindu monarchs was a land tax or rent. But the principle of assessment, as it existed in Shivaji's time, was very old indeed. Agriculture was then, as it is now, the principal industry in India and land revenue naturally formed the principal source of income of the Peshwas as well as of the Chhatrapatis. But while a long lease and a fixed rent were the special features of the land revenue system under the Peshwas, the founder of the Maratha Empire preferred to share the actual produce of the field with his subjects. Sabhasad tells us that an estimate was made of the produce (in grain) of each bigha and after dividing the grains into five shares three of the shares were left to the Rayat; two shares were taken for the government.⁶ In the Rumindei pillar inscription of Asoka mention is made of *Athabhagiye* or the eighth share of the produce claimed by the crown.⁷ ‘Bhaga,’ as we have already seen, means the portion of produce payable to the government according to Kautilya. According to Vishnu the king was entitled to “a sixth part every year of the grain and a sixth part of all other seeds.”⁸ Manu lays down that the king may take the eighth, sixth or twelfth part of the produce⁹ “according to the difference of the soil and labour necessary to cultivate it,” adds a commentator.∗∗ Youan Chwang found the Maratha tenants paying one-sixth of the produce as rent.¹⁰ The Chola kings, as Rice tells us, also claimed a sixth of the actual produce in the eleventh century A. D. Sher Shah collected one-fourth and Akbar expected one-third of the total crop though the Quran permits no more than one-tenth. Thus it is clear that although the proportion demanded varied from time to time, the principle that a certain proportion of the total crop should be annually rendered to the state was in operation can be traced from Shivaji back to the time of Asoka if not earlier.