Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni

SR No.: 001743
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 432
Language: English, Prakrit
Classification: Book_English, Agam, Canon, & Literature
File Size: 23 MB

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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
(śrigțha )1 from the fact that treasury was the primary source of prosperity and grandeur ( sri ) to the State. Revenue and Taxation
For the maintenance of the rich royal treasury the State had a regular Department of Revenue and Taxation which worked out all the financial problems of the State. Agriculture being the main occupation of the people, the landrevenue was the main basis of the State's income. The percentage of the land-revenue is not mentioned in the text. However, it would not be incorrect to assume that the State must have followed the ancient practice of charging one-sixth, oneeighth or one-tenth of the produce.2 Next to the land-revenue were the commercial taxes. Every article of trade was taxed by the State. There were regular check-posts or customhouses (sumkathāņa)s situated at the gate of a town or village where all the commodities of trade were checked ( paricchitta ) and taxed by the toll-superintendents or custom-officers designated as sumkiya ( saulkika ).* The percentage of taxation must have differed from State to State. In the NC., we find an example of a merchant, who had twenty carts loaded with vessels as giving away the twentieth part of it (visati-bhaga), i. e. one full cart of vessels to the toll-officers as royal tax.5 The trade-articles were fully checked and reloaded ( aruhana
1. NC. 2, p. 18; Brh. V;. 6, p. 1318. 2. The Vyavahāra Bhasya (1, p. 128 ) mentions one-sixth of the land
produce as the legal land-tax. According to Gautama (x. 24), it could be either one-tenth, onc-eighth or one-sixth of the land-produce. See
also-Manusmyti, VII. 130 ff. 3. ASTU BO377 safegit. Et afe" --NC. 4, p. 344. The custom
houses have also been called sulkamanda pikā in certain Jaina
inscriptions -Jaina Lekha Sangraha, pt. 1, p. 209. 4. NO. 4, p. 344; NC. 2, p. 97. Saulkika or sulka pāla is the common desig
nation of the custom-officers to be seen in the inscriptions as well as literature of the time-see Bth V. 4, p. 1071; CII. III, No. 12, p. 52, note 3; EI. XIX, pp. 69 ff. They are called sulkadhyaksa by
Kautilya-Arthasastra, Bk. II, Chap. 21. 5. NO. 4, p. 344.