Indian Antiquary Vol 45

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 63

MARCK, 1916)
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
55
not reap his harvest without the sanction of the Renter, who could chastise disobedience with bodily torture and wholesale confiscation. He was prevented from the sale of corn without the payment of transit duties at almost every tenth mile on his way to the market, a hardship which he shared with manufacturers and merchants. The prices of his goods, again, were not always regulated by the natural laws of demand and supply, as the exchange of specie could be raised or sunk at the Renter's discretion. The possibility of famines was, in consequence, & commozi object of fear. With the military force at his disposal, with all the judicial and civil authorities also united in his hands, the Renter, after all a mercenary in his ideals, had all those tremendous powers which " ought to constitute the dignity and lustre of supreme executive authority," and which he prostituted, at the expense of the people, to his insatiable greed and boundless avarice. It is not surprising that, in the time of the Carnatic Nawabs, the agriculturist was a miserably poor and robbed person. It is true that the provincial Governor of the Naik Kingdom, who was of course immodiately subordinate to the Karta, had all the powers, privileges and dignities of che later Renter. But there seems to have been a greater control of the Governor under the Kartas. He was moreover not a short time farmer of the revenues, who could oppress the people or the Zamindars and vassal Râjâs with impunity. He seems to have been invested with powors for an unlimited time, the duration of his power depending on his capacity to rule and his sympathy with the people. The central government also seems to have been comparatively vigilant in following his actions and checking his vagaries. The small incidence which took place at Tinnevelly in the time of the Governor Tiruvêngadanathaiya and his suzerain, Raiga Krish na Muttu Virappa Naik, illustrates the financial check of the Karta over the provincial ruler.
Comparison with the British system, If the Nâik administratio: of the land revenue was milder and more equitable than the later Muhammadan administration it was, in the view of some at least, not so mild or so equitable as the British administration of the present day. Mr. Nelson who first made such a comparison arrived at a very extravagant conclusion,78 On the ground that Father Martin, a Jesuit writer, writes that in 1713 eight marakale of rice were sold for one fanam, i. e., 96 lbs. of rice for 2 d., and that in 1866, when the Madura Manual was written, it was sold at 20 lbs. per rupee, Nelson concluded that the Naik revenue of £1,200,000 was really equal to 50 million pounds storling of the " present day,"—the purchasing power of money then being 40 times the purchasing power in 1866! Dewan Bahadur Srinivasa Raghava Aiyangar, the late Inspector General of Registration (Madras) and the author of the celebrated Memorandum on the 40 years' Progress of the Madras Presidency (1893), made & more moderate estimate. He points out that, according to Father Martin, a quantity of eight marakáls of rice was needed for a man's maintenance for 15 days, and that these 8 marakals were worth 2 d. Practical experience shews, however, that 8 maralcals are not wanted for a man for 15 days. The utmost that he is likely to need is 3 lbs. per day, and therefore 45 lbs. for 15 days. Now the Dewan Bahadur's contention is that even if these 45 lbs. are considered to have been worth 2 d., the price in 1713 would be 1/12 of the price in 1893 (when the aui hor wrote his memorandum). The purchasing power of the money in 1713, in other words, was twelve times the purchasing power in 1893. Mr. Hayavadana Rao carried this argument further. Assuming in a purely arbitrary manner—that the purchasing power of money in the 17th century was double that in the 18th, he concludes that the Nâik revenue of £1,200,000 or 180 lakhs of rupees was in reality equal to six times 180 lakhs, and that it was therefore 9 times the present land revenue in the same districts, which amounts to 120 lakhs of rupees.80
78 Madura Manual, 155-6.
To See Ind. Aniq. November 1911, p. 281-2 where a summary is given of both Nelson and Srinivasa Raghava Aiyangar.
80 Ibid. It will be seen that this writer simply multiplies the total merling amount by 15 to find out the silver equivalent !