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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[NOVEMBER, 1911.
one-half. Their land revenue for the whole of the Madras Presidency and Mysore, except the districts of Ganjam, Vizaga patâm, Godavari, and the northern part of Kistna, which never came under their survey, was, according to the chroniclers, Paes and Naniz, who visited Vijayanagar about 1520 and 1586-7, about 12) lakhs of pagodas. This in modern ourteney would be worth about 420 millions of rupees, the purchasing power of the rupee being about ten times what it is now. Allowing for the difference in area under cultivation, this means that Vijayanagar taxation was over seven times what the British is at present, or over forty-two per cent of the gross produce, taking the land revenue of the Madras Presidency, with the exception of the excluded districts and Mysore, according to the latest available statistics, at about sixty millions of rapees. But since the fees of village establishment and the expenses of the cultivation, as of necessity, were met from the cultivators' share, be would be left with a proportion, which, by the exactions of the renters, amongst whom the country was parcelled oat, would only be redaced to a bare subsistence. Hence it is that Nuoiz feelingly complains that the comnon paople suffer much hardship, those who hold the lands being so tyrannical." Besides the income derived from lands, the Vijayanagar kinga had many other sources of revenge. The collection of tolls alone seems to have brought enormous soms to the treasury.
On the break of the Vijayanagar kingdom after the battle of Talikota, its former governors became everywhere independent. The Nayaks of Madura were one of these, and they ruled over the present districts of Madura, Tinnevelly, and Trichinopoly, besides a part of Salem. Their feudatories, amongst whom the country was divided, according to Jesuit letter of 1611, took at least the half of the produce of the land." Their land revenue, according to the same letter, seems to have been about £1,200,000, or 180 lakhs of rapeos. The purchasing power of the rapee in the beginning of the 18th century woull, from another Josuit letter, appear, on the most moderate calculation, to be about twelve times what it is now. It it was only half as much-the probabilities are it might have been greater-in the beginning of the 17th century, then Nayak land revenue would, in modern currency, be about 1,080 lakhs of rupees. The present land revenue of these districts jointly amounts to about 1203 lakhs. Allowing for the difference in area and for the cesses included, Nayak land revenue of the present day is over 50 per cent., which quite agrees with the other statement in the Jesuit letter that the Niyak feudatories took " at least half of the produce of the lands.” The Nayak governmant of Coimbatore is described in a third Jesuit letter as "niere tyranny and mass of confusios and disorder." The other sogrces of Nayak revenue were the asual vexations imposts on every kind of profession and art; land cnatoms; fishery; plough-tax; ferry-boat tax, etc. They also exacted free manual labour. Tanjore under the Marathas fared no better. The celebrated Jesuit missionary De Britto Bays, in one of his letters, that Venkajt, the founder of the dynasty, exacted four-fifths of the produce and insisted on its payment in money at a rate fixed by himself. Tie result of his thus extorting 80 per cent of the gross produce was that the sale of the entire proluce did not suffice to meet the whole coatribution. There were, besides the land revenue thus ex iotel, savaral casgos, the naturs and extent of ag may as 27 being known.
The decling of Niyak power in the south preparol the way for Muhammadan congdest. The conquest of Bijapur and Golconds by the Mogal emperor, Aurangazib, opened the line for predatory Marathi marehes, followed up by Mogul generals to pat them down. Both Maratha and Mogal conquerors fleeced the inhabitants everywhere during the end of the 17th and the beginning of th13.b centuries. The establishm 3nt of the Nawab of Aroot was fresh beginning towards Battled government and order, but the war of successioa that followed in the Carnatic soon after, during the years 1749-1761, between the rival Nawabs, aided by the rival
. 1204 lakhs includes the revenue for the whole of Salem, wheruns only a part of it was under the Nagaka. Moreover, the area under cultivation has inoremed since Nayak timor.
