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OCTOBER, 1911.]
EARLY SOUTH INDIAN FINANCE
265
EARLY SOUTH INDIAN FINANCE.
BY C. HAYAVADANA RAO, B.A., B.L., F.R.A.I. (LONDON), MADRAS.
[Ir need not surprise anybody if no systematic attempt, on the lines of Mr. Thomas' well-known brochure on Moghul finance, has yet been made in regard to the revenue finance of the dynasties that have successively held sway over Southern India. Southern India has been fortunate, however, in the preservation of its ancient records, which consist mainly of lithic inscriptions, coins and palm leaf MSS. These and the writings of European travellers and missionaries in later times afford the necessary material for studying in some detail this important subject. What is presented here is, however, nothing more than a mere attempt in this field of inquiry; and I would fain see others, more able and more learned, take it up and throw fresh or additional light on it. I may here add that the present paper is an amplification of a brief note, now incorporated in the Imperial Gazetteer (Madras, Vol. I, p. 90), which I supplied, some time back, to Mr. W. Francis, I.C.S., formerly Superintendent of Gazetteer Revision in Madras and now Collector of Malabar.
I. The Cholas.
Of all the early rulers in Southern India, the Cholas are the only ones of whom anything definite is known. They are mentioned, together with the Pandyas and Keralas, of whom we know as yet very little, as independent rulers as early as the 3rd century B. C. in the Aśoka inscriptions.1 During the 11th and the following two centuries A. D., they ruled over the whole of what is now known as the Madras Presidency, the Provinces of Coorg and Mysore and the northern portion of Ceylon. The principal sources of their revenue are spoken of in their inscriptions as being of two kinds external and internal. The former probably included all taxes on imports and octroi duties, and the latter all other kinds of revenue, besides the land tax. The other kinds of revenue included tax in money; the share of the village watchman; the share of the Karnam or village accountant; the unripe fruit in Kártiggai; the tax on looms; the tax on trade; the tax on oil mills; the tax on goldsmiths; the dues on animals and tanks; the tax on water courses; tolls; tax on castes; the tax on weights; the fine for rotten drugs; the tax on bazaars; the salt tax; fishing rent; hedge tax; tax on collecting rents; and a good many others that have not yet been made out. There were besides collected a number of fines and other unnamed minor taxes and rents. With this may be compared "the variety of vexatious taxes" imposed by Chikkadêvaraja, the greatest king of Mysore, in order to supplement the usual one-sixth share of the produce. Somewhat similar are the taxes recommended by Manu in his well-known Laws. The chief source, however, of state income was that derived from land revenue, and if that was not capable of direct increase, a number of petty imposts would, it was evidently thought, make up for it...
As to the actual share that Government took during these days in Southern India, an inscription of the Chola king Rajadhiraja, who ruled from about A. D. 1018 to A. D. 1052, praises him for taking "the sixth share of the produce of the earth," and incidentally compares him with Manu+, who, it is well-known, recommends the taking of the sixth of the crops by the king, if not the eighth, or the twelfth part. King Adhirâjendra, son of Virarâjendra, who ruled from 1063 to 1070°, is also said to have continually increased his great fame by following the laws of Manu." If from these praises we can infer anything, it is that some of their predecessors had deviated from the rule whose observance by their successors brought them fame. If such an inference is valid, as it certainly seems to be, then there is ground for believing Dr. Burnell when he says that the indigenous
1 V. A. Smith's Asoka, pp. 115 and 131. 3 Ibid. Laws of Manu, VII. 130, Dr. Bühler's Edition, in the Sacred Books of the East Series, pp. 233-7. Ep. Ind., VII., 9. 1 South Ind, Ins. III. i. 117.
Dr. Hultasob's South Indian Inscriptions, III. i. 38, 43, 111 and 117. South Indian Ins. III. 57.
