Chapter VII. Kosha (Treasury or Finance)

Volume III pp. 184–199

Chapter VII. Kosha (Treasury or Finance)

Kaut (II 1) states that a king whose treasury is depleted preys upon the citizens and the rural population and (II 8) very¹ rightly remarks that all undertakings depend upon kośa (financial position of the king), therefore the king must pay the first attention to kośa. Gautama (as cited by S. V. p. 46) holds that kośa is the basis or support of the other six elements of the State. The Śāntiparva 119. 16 calls upon the king to guard his finances with great effort, since kings depend upon kośa, which tends to the prosperity (of the kingdom). Kāṃ XIII. 33 states that it is on the lips of all that the king is dependent on kośa. Śānti 133 contains a eulogy of kośa. The Viṣṇudharmottara II. 61. 17 says that kośa is the root of the tree of State. The two great pillars of the Indian States in ancient India were the revenue and the army. Manu VII. 65 says that kośa and the government of the realm depend on the king i.e. they should be the personal concern of the king. Yāj. (I. 327-328) recommends that the king should personally look into the income and expenditure every day and keep in his treasury buildings whatever is brought by those who are appointed to bring gold and wealth. Kāṃ V. 77 and Sukra I. 276-278 say the same. The Rājataraṅgiṇī (VII. 507-508) tells us that king Kalāśa of Kashmir (1063-1089 A. D.) kept accounts like a merchant, closely watched income and expenditure and had a clerk by his side with chalk and bhūrja (birch leaf) to write upoṇ The principal means of filling the treasury is taxatioṇ It is therefore necessary to consider first the principles of taxation as evolved by our writerṣ The first principle was that the king could not levy, according to the smṛtis, taxes at his pleasure or sweet will, that the rates of taxes which the king was entitled to levy were fixed by the smṛtis and varied only according to the commodity and also according as the times were normal or there was danger of invasion or some other calamity impending. For example, Gaut. X. 24, Manu VII 130, Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 22-23 declare that the king may ordinarily take a sixth part of the grain-crops or produce of the soil, but Kaut (V. 2), Manu (X. 118), Śānti 87, Śukra IV. 2. 9-10 permit the king to take even one-third or one-fourth part of the crops in times of distress (āpad). It has however to be noted that Kauṭilya requires the king to beg (yāceta) of the people for this heavy taxation, he employs the word pranaya (request) for such demands, such taxation was not to be levied from inferior lands, and he expressly says that such a demand for excessive taxation is to be made only once and not twice in the same distresṣ² Śānti (87. 26-33) contains a specimen of a long address to be given to the people when a king demands higher taxation in danger (such as 'if the enemy invades you, you will lose all including even your wives, the enemy will not restore to you what he robs you of ' &c. ) The word 'pranaya' occurs in this sense in the Junāgadh Inscription of Rudradāman (E. I. vol. VIII. p. 36 ll 15-16). Another principle laid down in somewhat poetical and picturesque language is that taxation should be felt by those taxed as light and not heavy or excessive. The Udyogaparva³ (34. 17-18) states 'just as a bee draws honey but at the same time leaves the flowers uninjured, so the king should take wealth from men without harming theṃ One (a bee) may search each flower (for honey) but should not cut the very root just like a garland-maker, but not like a coal-maker'. Manu (VII 129 and 140) laconically puts the matter thus 'just as the leech, the calf and the bee take their sustenance little by little, so must the king draw from his kingdom annual taxes little by little Let the king not cut up his own root (by levying no taxes) nor the root of others by⁴ excessive greed'. Śānti (88 4-6) states that the king should draw (taxes) from the realm lightly in the way the bee draws honey from the trees, he should do so in the way of the calf and should not bruise the udders (as the calf does not). Those verses also refer to the action of the leech, of the tigress carrying her cubs between her jaws and the rat gnawing at the feet of sleeping meṇ These ideas pervaded society so much that the same figure of the bee is instanced as regards the Buddhist bhikkhu's importunity for alms in the Dhammapada (verse 49). The king should act like a gardener who prepares garlands without harming the trees and their leaves and should not act like one who prepares coals from trees (Śānti 71 20)⁵. Manu VII 139 requires that the king should not through greed tax the subjects heavily, as he would thereby cut off the roots (i.e. prosperity and contentment) of the people, nor should he cut off his own roots (i.e. reduce himself to bankruptcy) by levying no taxeṣ A third principle of taxation was that when increasing taxes the rise should be gradual and a little at a time (Śānti 88 7-8). Taxes were to be recovered at a proper time and proper place (Śānti 88 12 and Kāṃ V 83-84)⁶. When taxing traders the king should make allowance for the price they had to pay, for the chances of selling the commodity (in his kingdom), the distance over which the merchandise was brought, what they must have spent for their food and condiments and the cost of guard- ing the merchandise (Manu VII. 127=Śānti 87. 13-14)⁷. In the case of artisans, before taxing them, the king has to pay regard to the labour and skill involved and to the necessaries of life required by them (Śānti 87. 15). Every one, however poor, must contribute something to the finances of the realṃ Manu (VII. 137-138) says that even a very poor man who maintains himself by following some occupation should be asked to contribute every year something in the nature of kara (a tax), while workers (like cooks), artisans (like blacksmiths), śūdras who subsist by manual labour (like porters) should be asked to contribute one day's work to the king in a month. Vide Gaut. X. 31-34, Viṣṇu Dh. Ś. III 32 for the same. But Śukra IV. 2. 121 says that workers and artisans should do one day's work for the king gratis in a fortnight. Gaut. X. 34 adds that the king must supply them with food on the day they work gratiṣ The importance of a gold and silver reserve was well understooḍ Kām (IV. 62-64) says⁸ that the king’s kośa should have many sources for filling it, but few outlets of expenditure, it should be full of all desired kinds of wealth, guarded by trusty officers, rich in pearls, gold and jewels, it should have been acquired according to śāstric rules, be capable of bearing great strain of expenditure and that kośa is to be preserved only for the purpose of securing the two goals viz. dharma and artha, for affording maintenance to the servants engaged by the king and as a safeguard against calamitieṣ Śukra IV. 2 3 remarks that kośa is accumulated for the upkeep of the army and for the benefit of the people and for performing sacrificeṣ Gaut X. 28-29, Manu VII. 128, VIII. 306-308, Nār. (prakirṇaka 43) and others say, as has been already stated, that taxation is meant for the protection of the subjects and that it is the king’s wages (vetana) for the protection he affordṣ Manu IX. 305 compares the king taking taxes to the sun that produces vapour from the seas (in order to return it in the form of rain, as the Raghu- vamsa I. 18 very happily puts it). Kāṃ (V. 78-79) enumerates eight principal sources (called astavarga) of filling the treasury. through the action of the heads of the departments viz. agriculture, trade-routes (both on land and water), the capital, water embankments, catching of elephants, working mines and collect-ing gold &c., levying wealth (from the rich ), founding towns and villages in uninhabited spotṣ The Mānasollāsa (II. 4 verses 539-540 p 77) advises the king to spend ordinarily three-fourths of the yearly revenues and save one-fourth. Śukra (I. 315-317) prescribes that the king should save 1/6 of his total annual income and should spend 1/2 of the whole on the army and one-twelfth each on charity (to the learned, the poor and helpless &c ), ministers, inferior officials, and his private purse or expenseṣ Śukra IV. 2 26 requires the king to have as much stock of grain as would be required for three years' consumption in his country. In IV 2 13 he sets before the king the impossible ideal that his treasury should be so full that he can support his army for 20 years if no taxes from agriculture or tolls were raised or no fines were recovereḍ The Mānasollāsa (II. 4 394-397 p 64) says that the king's treasury should be always full of gold, silver, jewels, ornaments and costly clothes, that pure gold in the form of niskas (coins) or bars or ornaments should be held in the treasury. Kaut (IV 3) as stated above permitted the king in famines to make the rich disgorge their wealth. In V 2 he remarks that if after making special requests for additional taxation, when the treasury is empty and some danger is impending, to the cultivators, merchants, wine-sellers, prostitutes and those who rear pigs, poultry, cattle &c, the king may request the rich to give as much of their gold as they can and the king may honour them by bestowing on them a post at his court, or the dignity of an umbrella, a turban or some decoration in return for their wealth⁹. He permits the king in calamities to take away the wealth of the corpora tions (sanghas) of heretics and of temples also, to set up all of a sudden on one night a god or a platform (caitya) for a holy tree or a sacred place for a man of miraculous powers and provide for fairs and merry gatherings there and secure the necessary money¹⁰. He recommends many other tricks and dodges for securing money, which are passed over. Perhaps the only redeeming feature of these devices is that Kauṭilya is careful to point out that they were to be employed only against the seditious and the irreligious and not against others (V. 2 ‘eram duṣyeṣvadhāmikeṣu varteta netareṣu’). Vide Nītiyākmṛta (kosa-samuddeśa) p. 205 for similar provisions to replenish a depleted treasury. The Parasurāmapratāpa (Rājāvallabhakāṇḍa, folio 27 b) quotes a verse which recommends resort to alchemy for replenishing the treasury¹¹. Śukra IV. 2 11 advises the king when in financial difficulties to promise interest to the rich and take their wealth and to return it with interest when the difficulties are got over¹². Śānti (88. 29-30) asks¹³ the king to honour the wealthy men in his kingdom, since they constitute an important element of the realm and are the most eminent among all beings and to request them ‘confer along with me favours on the people’.

Several reasons are assigned for people’s payment of taxes to the king. Gaut X. 28 says that they should do so because he protects theṃ In some places the idea put forward is that taxes are the wages (velana) of the king and that the subjects made a contract with the king Manu to that effect. Vide Śānti 67 and 70. 10, Baud Dh. S. I. 10. 1, Nār. 18. 48, Kaut. I 13 (quoted on p 21 above). Kat ¹⁴ (verses 16–17) states that as the king is the owner of the earth but not of other kinds of wealth, he is entitled to get the sixth part of the produce of land and that since human beings reside on land they are declared to be owners (in ordinary parlance, but they have only a qualified ownership). Several kinds of taxes are mentioned in the dharmaśāstras, arthaśāstras and the inscriptionṣ The oldest word for a tax paid to the king is 'bali' Rg VII 6 5¹⁵ and X 173 6 speak of the common people as 'balihrt' (bringers of bali, tribute or tax for the king) In the Tai Br (II 7 18 3) it is said 'the people bring bali to him' In the Ait Br (35 3) the vaiśya is characterized as 'balikrt' (payer of taxes to another), since brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas were mostly exempt from taxat-ioṇ Vide Prof. Hopkins' 'Social condition of the ruling class' J A O S vol XIII p 89 and Fick p 119 (as to the evidence of the Jātakas on taxation) Manu VII. 80, Matsya 215 57, Rāmāyaṇa III 6 11, Viṣṇu Dh S III 22 employ the word 'bali' in the sense of the 6th part of the produce of land that the king levied as tax. In the Rummindei Pillar Inscription of Aśoka (Corpus I L vol. I p 164) it is said that the village of Lummini was made free from the payment of 'bali', but had to pay one-eighth share ¹⁶ Here 'bali' is contrasted with 'bhāga' which is a general term The word 'kara' appears to mean a tax in general Vide Āp Dh S II 10 26 10, Manu VII 128, 129, 133, Vas 19. 23, Viṣṇu Dh. S III 26-27 The word 'bhāga' (share) is also general and means the king's dues on land, trees, drugs, cattle, wealth &c Vide Manu VII 130-131, VIII 305, Viṣṇu Dh S III 25 This meaning of 'bhāga' is ancient We saw above (p 112) that bhāgudugha is one of the ratuins of the king The Amarakosa treats bali, kara, and bhāga as synonymous

The word 'sulka' generally means the tolls or customs duties levied from vendors and purchasers on merchandise carried into or out of the kingdom (Śukranītisāra IV 2. 108) The Mahābhāṣya on the vārtika āyasthānebhyaṣṭhak' on Pāṇ IV 2. 104 gives saulkika and gaulmika as examples, indicating thereby that śulka or toll was levied as a source of income (āya) at the toll-gate

The principal and perennial sources of income to the state were three viz the king's share of the produce of land, tolls and customs duties, fines levied from wrongdoers or defeated litigants (vide Śānti 71 10 and Śukra IV 2 13) From this and from Manu X. 119-120 it appears that the principal tax-payers were agriculturists, traders, manual workers and artisanṣ In Manu VIII 307 quoted in the Dandaviveka of Vardhamāna (p. 5) it is said that the king who, without affording protection, levies bali, kara, śulka, pratibhoga ( pratibhāga in the printed smṛti) and danda (fines) goes at once to hell and Vardhamāna explains karu as the dues recovered every month from villagers and city-dwellers (every month or twice a year in Bhādrapada or Pausa according to Kullūka), śulka as the twelfth share re- covered from traders, pratibhoga as the dues in the form of fruits, flowers and vegetables presented every day. A few remarks on these and other taxes must be made here Manu VII. 130, Gaut. X. 24, Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 22, Mānasollāsa (II. 3. 163 p. 44 ) and several others prescribe that the king is entitled to the 6th, 8th or 12th part (only sixth in Viṣṇu, also 10th in Gaut.) of the yield of grain from lanḍ Bṛhaspati and the Visnudharmot- tara¹⁷ (II. 61. 60-61) quoted in the Rajanitiprakāśa (pp. 262- 263) make it clear under what circumstances these different shares are to be taken : viz the king takes 1/6 of śūkadhānya (awned or bearded grain like wheat and barley ), 1/8 from śimbidhānya (grain in pods), 10th part from crops grown on land that was fallow for many years, 1/8th from lands sown in the rainy season and one-sixth from lands that have spring cropṣ The tax was to be paid once every year or once in six months according to the custom of the country. The varying rates prescribed by Kauṭilya have been indicated in describing the duties of the sitādhyakṣa. Śukra (IV. 2 121-122) gives a salutary rule that if a cultivator constructs a tank, a well or an artificial water-course or brings under cultivation land previously fallow, the king should not levy a tax thereon till the person making the expenditure has recovered twice the amount spent by hiṃ Kaut. (II. 1) provides that the king may show favour (anugraha) to the cultivators by supplying them with seed, cattle and money and that they should return the advances by easy instalments and that the king shall bestow favours and remissions (parihāra) in such a way that they might tend to swell the treasury and not tend to its depletioṇ²⁴⁷ It has already been stated that according to the smṛtis the ordinary share of the king was one-sixth, but that in case of the danger of invasion or similar calamity he was allow-ed to raise it to one-fourth. Megasthenes (Fragment I, p 42 ) says that no person is permitted to own land and that besides, the land tribute people pay into the royal treasury a fourth part of the produce This shows that the tax on land was very heavy in the times of Candragupta probably owing to his wars to drive away the Greeks and the huge armies that he had to employ Manu VII 130, Gaut X. 25, Viṣṇu Dh S III 24, Mānasollāsa (II 3 163 p 44) hold that the king is entitled to the 50th part of the cattle reared by herdsmen and of the interest earned by those who lend money at interest This last appears to be analogous to modern income-tax The Sukranītisāra IV 2 128 makes the tax to be ½ on the interest earned by money-lending.²⁴⁸ Viṣṇu adds cloth to these two Manu VII 131-132, Gaut X 27, Viṣṇu Dh S III 25, Viṣṇudharmottara II 61 61-63 and Mānasollāsa lay down that the king is entitled to a sixth part of trees, meat, honey, clarified butter, perfumes (like sandalwood ), medicinal plants (like gudūcī ), rasa (salt &c ), flowers, roots (like turmeric ), fruits, leaves (like palm leaves ), vegetables, grass, hides, articles manufactured from bamboo slips, earthenware, articles prepared from stones Viṣṇu adds deer hides to these

Sulka is of two kinds, what is levied on goods carried by land and what is levied on goods carried by water (Mit on Yaj II 263 ) Gaut X 26 and Viṣṇu Dh S. III 29 state that the sulka is 1/20th part on merchandise for sale (bought and sold in the country itself ) which is interpreted by some (like Haradatta and Nandapaṇḍita ) as meaning that 5 per cent of the price of articles sold should be taken by the king as tax, while the Rājanītiprakāśa (p 264 ) explains that the king is entitled only to five per cent of the difference between the cost price and the sale price of merchandise Manu VIII 398 also is susceptible of these two interpretations, as the commentaries of Medhātithi and Kullūka show The Viṣṇu Dh S (III 29-30) prescribes that the king takes one-tenth on merchandise produced in his own country and one-twentieth on goods imported from a foreign country Yāj. II. 261 says that the śulka on goods is twentieth part of the prices of the goods Kaut (II 21 ) in his chapter on the superintendent of tolls (śulkādhyakṣa ) sets out several rules, of which a few interesting ones are given here Commodities intended for marriage or taken by a bride from her husband or meant as presents or for the purpose of sacrifices or the accouchement of women or for the worship of gods, or for the ceremonies of cūla, upanayana, godānu, or for the observance of a vrata or for the consecration of a person for a sacrifice and for other special ceremonies shall be allowed to go free of tollṣ Whatever commodities would cause harm to the realm or are useless should be destroyed; whatever is of great benefit and seeds not easily available should be allowed to be imported without charge²⁰ He further says (II. 22) that śulka is levied on exports and imports of merchandise and that on imports the tax will be one-fifth of the price of the commodities (as a general rule) and prescribes varying rates (1/6, 1/10, 1/15, 1/20, 1/25) on different kinds of articles In II 28 (on the superintendent of shipping) Kauṭilya gives further rules some of which have been already noteḍ He prescribes rules for ferries also, viz. that brāhmaṇas, ascetics, children, very old people, sick men, messengers, pregnant women are to be provided with free passes by the superintendent enabling them to use the ferrieṣ A man with a load and small animals were to pay one māsa at a ferry, a cow or a horse two māsas and so oṇ The Mānasollāsa (II. 4. vv. 374-376 p 62 ) prescribes that the king should well guard all harbours (celā-puṇu) that are near the sea, that when the boats of sailors residing in his own country return to the harbour the king should charge one-tenth (of the price of goods brought) as the duty and that when foreign boats are driven to his harbour by an unfavourable wind, the king should confiscate all their merchandise or may give a little to the owners of those boatṣ In this connection a very interesting inscription may be referred to The Motupalli pillar inscription²¹ of the Kakatiya king Gaṇapatideva (of 1244-45 A. D. issues (E. I vol. XII p. 195) a charter of security (abhaya-śāsana) to the sailors who ply between towns in different countries, islands and continents: 'when ships that made voyages from one country to another were driven or were shattered or touched at a place that was not meant as a place of call, owing to unfavourable winds, former kings forcibly took away all commodities therein such as gold, elephants, horses &c.; but we, considering that wealth is dearer than life itself, have with kindness decided to give everything except the fixed śulka to those sailors who undertake the great venture of cross- ing the sea, so that thereby we shall secure fame and righteous- ness; the śulka fixed is as follows'. About śulka to be levied on goods brought by the sea the Bauḍ Dh. S. (I. 10. 15-16) prescribes that it is 10 per cent of the cargo except one best article (which is totally exempted). In the Kharepatan grant of the Śilāra king Rattarāja dated sake 930 it is provided that one golden gadiyāna was levied as duty on each vessel that came from another country (dvīpāntarāyāta-vahitrat) and one golden dharana had to be paid on each vessel coming from the district of Kandalamūliya excepting Cemulya (modern Cheul) and Candrapura. Vide E I vol. III p. 292 at p. 301 Śukra (IV. 2 109-111) lays down some very reasonable rules viz on the same commodity śulka is to be taken in the same country by the king only once and never more than once; the king may take either 1/16, 1/20 or 1/32 from the vendee or vendor; no śulka is to be taken from the vendor when he has to sell his goods at the same price at which he bought them or for less than the cost price; the king should always take from the buyer the proper śulka after seeing what profit he is going to make Nār (sambhūya-samutthāna verses 14-15) lays down that whatever is to be used by śrotriyas (brāhmaṇas learned in the Vedas) for domestic purposes is exempt, but not what they employ in trade; the gifts received by brāhmaṇas, the property of stage- players, whatever is carried on a man's shoulders—on all these no śulka must be levieḍ The exemption of brāhmaṇas and others from taxation has already been dealt with in H. Dh. vol. II pp 143-145. Gaut. X. 9-12, Ap Dh. S II. 10. 26 10-16, Vas I 42-46 and 19 23-24, Manu. VIII. 394 exempt a learned brāhmaṇa, the women of all varṇas, all boys before the signs of puberty appear, all those who stay with a teacher for study, ascetics who are intent on dharma, śūdras that do menial work such as washing the feet of higher varṇas, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the diseased, the cripple, an old man of 70 years or more. Though these really required more protection than most people, humanity and higher feelings made them exempt from taxes from very ancient timeṣ The claims to exemption were probably exaggerated and not respected in practice. For example, Nārada (VI. 14) states that the king is not to levy tolls or customs duties on articles required by śrotriyas for domestic use but if they engaged in trade they had to pay taxes on merchandise.²² The Mit. on Yaj. II. 4 states that the six exemptions mentioned in Gaut. (VIII. 12-13) apply only to a very learned brāhmaṇa and not to all brāhmanaṣ Manu. VII. 133 provides that a king even when he has lost everything should not levy a tax on śrotriyas and relying on this the Vaijayanti explains Viṣṇu Dh S III 26 as referring only to learned brāhmanaṣ The Rāmāyaṇa (III. 6. 14)²² states, differing from other authorities, that the king shares one-fourth of the merit of munis (ascetics) dwelling in his kingdoṃ There was a corresponding liability on the king; viz. he shared half and half in the demerit due to the sins committed by the subjects that are not properly restrained by him (Yaj, I 337). Manu Dh S. III. 28 and Visnudharmottara II. 61 25 say that he reaps the sixth part of the sin of his subjectṣ

Kaut in II. 15 mentions numerous kinds of taxes or dues that were levied by the king. It is not possible to explain many of the terms used by hiṃ In the ancient inscriptions, when making grants of a village and the like, it is usual for the kings to specify the exemptions from taxes and dues that went with the grant. Such exemptions were called parīhāra, which word occurs in Kauṭilya and also in the Hāthīgumphā Inscription of Khāravela (in the 2nd century B. C., E. I. vol. xx at p. 9) where we read ‘bamhanānam jātim parīhāram dadāti’. In certain early records even, these exemptions are said to be eighteen, e. g. in the Hirahadagalli plate of Śivaskandavarman (E. I. vol I. p. 6) and ²³ the Omgudu plate of Vijayaskandavarman (E I 15 p. 250) Vide H Dh vol II pp 864-865 and notes thereon for grants containing names of numerous taxes that were remitted to the grantees and ‘Pandyan kingdom’ by Prof Nilkanta Sastri p 217 on the same subject Fines as a source of revenue will be discussed in the next section about ‘law and justice’ The king had numerous other sources of income Kaut (II. 12) describes the duties of the superintendent of mines Every thing dug up from mines belonged to the king ( Visnudharmasūtra III 55) According to Manu VIII 39 and Medhātithi thereon the king is entitled to a half ( or some share ⅓, ⅚ &c ) of the ore dug out of mines, as he is the lord of the earth and gives protection In modern times under sec 69 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code, Government have a right to all mines and minerals The ‘Paraśurāmapratāpa ²³ quotes a verse ‘ Brahmā arranged that the king was (to be) the owner of all wealth and specially (wealth) that is inside the earth,’ while Kāt (16–17) says ( vide note 243 ) ‘the king is declared to be the lord of the land, but never of other kinds of wealth; therefore he ‘should secure the sixth part of the fruits of land, but not otherwise at all Since human beings reside on it (land) their (qualified) ownership thereof has been declared’ For further discussion of the theory of the king's ownership of all land, vide H of Dh. vol II, pp 865-869 The State itself manufactured salt, took its share in salt manufactured by private persons and levied ⅓ as State dues on imported salt. Kauțilya mentions ten kinds of revenue from mines The Mānasollāsa (II. 3 verses 332 and 361) asks the king to guard mines of gems, gold and silver and declares that the Creator made the king the ruler over all wealth and especially over what is inside the earth. Rudradāman (150 A. D) boasts that he filled his treasury by means of bali, śulka and bhāga levied according to the śāstras and that his treasury overflowed with heaps of gold, silver, diamonds, lapis lazuli and other gems (E I vol VIII. p. 36 at p 44) Kaut (IV 1) says that those who sweep the dust (near mines &c.) should get one-third of the valuable things found and the king should get two-thirds and all jewelṣ The king had also monopolies in certain matterṣ He alone could catch elephantṣ Kaut (II 31-32) and Mānasollāsa (II. 3, pp 44-58) deal with this matter, the latter describing several methods of catching elephantṣ Medhātithi²⁴ on Manu VIII 400 says that kings have a monopoly as to elephants because it is well-known that they are most useful to them and he specifies certain monopolies such as those in saffron, silken cloth and wool, horses, pearls and jewelṣ Megasthenes (Fragment XXXVI p. 90) states that a private person was not allowed to keep an elephant or a horse and that those animals were held to be the special property of the king

The king recovered a sort of road less through officers called antapāla (guardians of borders or boundaries) viz 1¼ pana on each cart loaded with merchandise, half a pana on each head of cattle, ⅛th pana on minor quadrupeds, and one māsa on a load carried on a man's shoulders (Kaut. II 21 p 111). Śukra IV. 2. 129 permits for the repairs to the roads a tax on those who use roadṣ Revenues were raised in numerous other ways such as by charging for stamping weights and measures, by fees levied from keepers of gambling halls, from players, singers and musicians, from prostitutes, from forests and pastures &c. Bṛhat-Parāśara X p 282 allows the king in a financial crisis to use even temple funds and make them good when freed from his difficult positioṇ Similarly it allows the king (in difficulty) to take the wealth of usurers, of low people, of heretics and prostitutes, as the continuance and prosperity of temples and the others depend upon the king.²⁵

The Rājataranginī (VII. 1008) notices that a tax was levied on Kashmirians performing śrāddha at Gayā. An inscrip- tion of Vikramāditya V found near Gadag dated śaka 934 (1012-13 A. D.) refers to taxes levied on upanayana, marriages, vedic sacrifices &c. (E. I. vol. 20 p. 64). It appears that the king of Anahilavād, Siddhārāja (1094-1143 A. D.), levied a tax on pilgrims going to Somanātha at the frontier town Bahuloda and it is said that the tax yielded 72 lakhs of rupees a year, which Siddhārāja remitted for the sake of and at the inter- vention of his mother; vide Bom G. vol. I part 1 p. 172 and Prabandha-cintāmani (p. 84, Tawney). The amount is probably very highly exaggerated in order to glorify Siddhārāja, but this shows that the yield of the pilgrim tax must have been substantial. The Mānasollāsa in its great desire to help the king with the accumulation of wealth advises the king even to resort to alchemy.²⁶

A question may be asked, what were the means of preven- ting a king from being over-exacting and tyrannical in his taxes? Kaut. (VII. 5 pp. 276-277) cites at great length the causes that lead to the impoverishment of the subjects, to their being greedy and disaffecteḍ Among these he mentions²⁷ 'not paying what ought to be paid and exacting what ought not to be exacted, not punishing the guilty and severely punishing the guilty, not protecting the people against thieves and robbing them of their wealth'. He then states that when the subjects become impoverished they become greedy and when greedy they become disaffected and voluntarily go over to the side of the king's enemy or destroy their own king. place Kauṭilya (XIII. 1) suggests²⁵⁷ that a conqueror may employ spies who should encourage the subjects of his enemy suffering from famine, depredations of thieves and wild tribes to tell their king, ‘we shall beg the king for favour (remission of taxes or help in the way of seeds &c.) but if he does not agree to bestow favours we shall go to another country’. So the threat of disaffection and migrating to another country were the deterrents against the tyranny of heavy taxation according to Kauṭilya. Sānti 87. 36 says^257a that if the vaiśyas (gominah, who bore the brunt of taxation) were neglected, they may dis- appear from the country and dwell in forestṣ Manu (VII. 111- 112 ) warns kings who through folly rashly oppress their king- relatives and also their kingdoms Yāj. (I 340-341 ) is even more emphatic and says that the king who seeks to increase his treasury with wealth extracted by unjust means from his realm loses his wealth in no time and meets destruction along with his relativeṣ ‘The fire springing from the wrath caused by the harassment of the subjects does not cease without burning the family, the wealth and the life of the king.’ Kātyāyana (v. 19) harps on the spiritual consequences: ‘the king who unjustly takes from his kingdom taxes, fines, share of crops and tolls, incurs²⁵⁸ siṇ’ Śukra²⁵⁹ (II. 319-321 and 370) emphasizes the keeping of daily, monthly and yearly accounts and the entering of the several items of income on the left side of the account and of those of expenditure on the right. The Nitivākyāmṛta^259a refers to the appointment of auditors when there is discrepancy in the items of income and expenditure.