Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s9: 4. The Patil's perquisites
Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s9
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4. The Patil's perquisites
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Let us now turn to the perquisites of the Patil's office and try to find out how many of them had the sanction of the old Hindu lawgivers. It appears from a Marathi deed of sale that the following were among others the dues that it was customary for the Patil to receive from his co-villagers:
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1. A bundle of fuel.
2. 1½ maunds per boat load of grain.
3. Twenty-five bundles of jawar-sticks from each cultivator.
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4. Five seers of cotton from each field.
5. One bundle of jawar from each cultivator.
6. Two pairs of shoes per year from the shoemaker.
7. One bundle of green fodder from each cultivator.
8. Nine *taks* of oils from each oil-mill.
9. Thirteen leaves per day from each seller of betel leaves.
10. One lump of molasses, one bundle of sugar-cane and one tin of juice from each farm growing sugar-cane, excepting that belonging to the Joshi.
11. One goat from each herd on the Dasra day.
12. One piece of cloth per loom per year from all classes of weavers.
13. One piece of cloth per year from the loom of a Dhangar.
14. Half a cocoanut for every marriage-negotiation, marriage and widow-remarriage.
15. Vegetables from vegetable growers.
16. All produce, except corn, on one *wafa* from each farm.
17. Customary shares from each seller in the market.
18. Customary rent from each Bania's stall.
19. ¾ seer per bag of grocery from a grocer's shop.
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20. The customary amount of salt and chaff per bag.
21. One nut per day from each grocer's shop.
22. Water to be supplied by the Koli.
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The Patil perhaps owed these dues to a law of Manu which says "Those (articles) which the villagers ought to furnish daily to the king such as food, drink, and fuel, the lord of one village shall obtain. The ruler of ten (villages) shall enjoy one *kula* (as much land as suffice for one family), the ruler of twenty-five *kulas*, the Superintendent of a hundred villages (the revenues of) one village, the lord of a thousand (the revenue of) a town."³² The Patilship corresponded to the lordship of one village. According to Manu he was not entitled to any rent-free land, but the Maratha Patil in addition to food, drink and fuel, as enumerated in the above list, enjoyed some rent-free Inam land as well. As Manu allots to the Patil all that "the villagers ought to furnish daily to the king," let us see what the king could expect from a village according to other Hindu jurists. The king, according to Kautilya, could "exercise his right of ownership with regard to fishing, ferrying and trading in vegetables (haritpanya) in reservoirs or lakes."³³ From villages of different descriptions, he could expect taxes in the form of grains, cattle, gold or raw materials, free labour and dairy produce.³⁴ Vishnu allows the king to take from his subjects as taxes "a sixth part every year of the grain; and sixth part of all other seeds; two in the hundred, of cattle, gold and clothes; a sixth part of flesh, honey, clarified butter, herbs, perfumes, flowers, roots, fruits, liquids and condiments, wood, leaves (of the palmyra tree and others), skins, earthen pots, stone vessels, and anything made of split bamboo."³⁵ It is necessary to note here that the list quoted above is by no means exhaustive and the document from which we quoted it, does not give a complete list of all the rights and perquisites of the Patil's office. These varied in different parts of Maharashtra, as the king's demands must have varied in different parts of India at different times. A comparison between our list of the Patil's dues and those supplied by Kautilya and Vishnu leaves little doubt as to the antiquity of the different items. The village Mali on festive occasions had to supply flowers for the Patil's house. He was entitled to the free labour of the Koli and the Mahar who had to supply him with water and fuel respectively. The Mahar could not take the skin of his dead cattle, and the shoemaker, the oil man, the weaver had to give him shoes, oil and cloth. He was entitled to a share of the vegetables, or haritpanya of Kautilya, and herbs sold in the village. He got one goat from each herd on the Dasra day which correspond to sixth part of flesh, which according to Vishnu the king could take. "The customary rent for each Bania's stall" is no less old than the Shukra Niti where we read that the king should have "land tax from shop-keepers."
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³² S. B. E., Vol. XXV, pp. 234-235.
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³³ Kautilya, Arthasastra, p. 53.
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³⁴ Kautilya, Arthashastra, p. 178.
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³⁵ S. B. E., Vol. VII, p. 16.
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The old legal works does not form the only evidence in favour of the antiquity of these dues. Some of them have been mentioned in old inscriptions as well. The Maratha Patils were entitled to a small tax in money on the occasion of each marriage and widow-re-marriage (Lagna-patti and Patdam) in the village. Reference is made to such a tax in a Kanarese inscription of Yadava Singhana Deva.³⁶ "And whenever those same Ugura three hundred and the five hundred and four," so runs the inscription, "asked with importunity they gave one coin such as is given on marriage occasions." The same inscription mentions an impost of betel-leaves on betel-leaf sellers and a measure of oil on each oil mill. "Harikekuli and the contribution on the profits," we read in this interesting document, "was the impost of betel-leaves levied on the road; and there was allotted to the same god one *visa* on each load of a beast of burden of betel leaves. Two *solasages* of oil were given on each oil mill to provide for the ceremony of averting the effects of the evil eye, which was held on Mondays at the Singvatti of that locality. And one oil mill was set apart for the god. Sixty cultivators gave a *kandage* of dried fruits, grains, etc. And the reapers of the betel plants will give (a contribution). The ministers of the king shall recognize these imposts. And the sellers of betel leaves and areca-nuts inside the village will give (a contribution) when they realize in cash the price that they obtain." This grant was made by Danda-nayaka Purushottama, an officer of the Yadava king, Singhana Deva, to a temple at Munoli in the Belgaum district, and the date of the inscription is 1145 of the Shaka era. This clearly shows how these imposts were common in Southern India in the 13th century of the Christian era.
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³⁶ Fleet, J. B. Br. R. A. S., XXII, pp. 22f.
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These imposts were not however peculiar to South India alone, they are mentioned along with "the rent of a Bania's stall" in an earlier North Indian inscription, *vis.*, the famous temple inscription of Siyadoni, which can be ascribed to the tenth century A. D., according to Prof. Kielhorn. Among other donations recorded in this huge inscription, the following will be of special interest to us.
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(26-27) (Samvat 994, Vaishakha vadi 5, Samkrantau.) The sellers of betel. Shavara, son of Keshava and Madhava, son of Ichchu, gave an endowment realizing the payment of a vigrahadrammavisovaka on every palika of leaves to the god Vishnu, set up by Chanduka.
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(27-28) Nagaka gave a *palika* of oil from every oil mill of the oil makers.
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(30-31) Samvat 1008, Magha shudi 11, Keshava, Durgaditya and other oil makers, gave a *palika* of oil from every oil mill to Shri Cakraswamideva, set up by Purandara in the temple of Vishnu erected by Chandu.
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(36-39) Samvat 1025, Magha vadi 9. The merchant Shridhara, son of Mahaditya: assigned a quarter of a Shrimadadivarahadramma, paid as the rent of a *vithi* to Shri-Vishnu-bhattaraka set up by Mahaditya in the temple of Vishnu erected by Chandu.³⁷
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³⁷ Kielhorn, Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 168.
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I do not contend that the imposts mentioned in the Munoli temple inscription and the voluntary gifts enumerated in the Siyadoni inscription were in all respects identical with the dues of the Patil. According to Manu the village officer was entitled to all that the king could expect from a village. Kautilya says that in lieu of a tax in cash some villages were allowed to pay the royal tax in the shape of grains, dairy products, labour, military service, etc. In the above two inscriptions we find that imposts of betel-leaves, and a certain measure of oil from each oil mill were made in favour of a god. Is it quite unreasonable to suppose that the betel-leaf seller, the oilman, the shoemaker, the areca-nut seller (grocer) had similarly offered to give the Patil a share of their produce, to which he was entitled according to the laws of Manu, and the existing imposts in favour of the village headman had led to similar imposition in favour of the village god?