Indian Antiquary Vol 45

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

Page 78

70
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(APRIL, 1916
3 paņams from each family of ? Kachchava]A-Vâviyar, 3 panams from each family of ? Sivan-padavar (Sembadavar), 40 panams on cloths and 4 towards kaltigai-kanikkai." The idangai and valangai varis were paid by the people of the idangai and valangai castes ;92 the nadutalavirikkai03 or police rate by all communities; the settiyar-magamai by the voluntary gift of the Seftis ; the alláyamanyam and adi-kasu on each shop opened in markets. The purchase and sale of cattle,o the manufacture of salt, the catching and sale of fish in tanks and rivers, the cutting of fuel in forests,-all these were subject to taxation. Even marriage was a source of income. Every labourer, again, was bound to serve the king freely for a period in the year. That the king attached a good deal of importance to free service (vetti-vari) is clear from an inscription of the 15th century at Tirukkâțțuppalli, which says that the king gave away to the temple of that place " about 40 to 45 different taxes which appear to have been generally collected by the palace at that period," except the vettvari. Nor is this surprising in an age when the construction of public works was a criterion of royal greatness and popular prosperity, and when there was a mania for such works among kings and governors, among Polygars and even petty chiefs.
The Octroi duties and customs. The octroi duties and customs were evidently levied at fixed places and at fixed rates on all merchandise and provisions. The rates must have varied with variations of weight, of commodities and of the distance traversed. From stray and incidental notices in the chronicles we find, as Nelson did, that the usual octroi duty on paddy was one fanam on every eight podis or bags. In modern phraseology, he says, it is equal to a duty of 21 pance on every 400 lbs. Here Nelson is quite correct in taking the faņam to be the small silver coin of that name; but it is difficult to see how he arrived at the value 2d. As 16 fara moc were equal to a pagoda, the fanam must have been equal to between 31 and 4 pence. Mr. Nelson evidently depended on some local variation. According to Wilks the customs duties in Mysoro97 were of three kinds,—the athalddaya or those levied on goods imported to be sold at one place; the mârgada ya or duties on goods in transit; and mamilddiy: or duties exported to foreign countries. "All kinds of goods, even firewood and straw, paid these duties, excepting glass rings, brays pots and soap-balls." The same system should have prevailed in Madura. It is not improbable that the mamaiadaya of Madura9s included sea-customs also; but we can well believe with Nelson that the customs were chiefly land customs. The sea was entirely under the control of the Portuguese and though they were bound to pay certain duties ato. Tuticorin and elsewhere, the income that the Stato could have derived from them was perhaps small and precarious.
The Pearl Fisheries. The pearl fisheries, which were an object of greedy competition especially among foreign exploiters, at first the Portuguese and then the200 Dutch, and were extensively car
92 See Madr. Ep. Rep., 1913, p. 130; Ibid, 1911, p. 83 ; Insen, 215 of 1910 says that the Pallis and She Vaniyars who evidently claimed to collect the taxes from them belonged to the Idaigais.
93 Ep. Rep., 1911, p. 84.
# Wilks' Mysore. The description of the Vijayanagar taxation in Mysore oan be taken to complete. ly apply to Madura also. 15 Ep. Rep. 1913, p. 130.
% See note 78.
97 Mysore Garr. I. 98 For an exceedingly interesting regulation regarding marine mercantile enterprise by King Ganapat Déva of Warangal in the 13th century see Ep. Rep., 1910, p. 107. It is not improbable that similar policy guided other powers in later times, but no definite and dogmatio statomont is possible.
99 See Manual of 8. Ounari, p. 68.9. The Portuguese made themselves masters of the whole trade of the West coast and exacted tribute from all the coast porte. Rama Raya found their assistance so valuable that in 1547 ho executed a treaty with them under which the whole of the export and import trade of the country was placed in the hands of the Portuguese factors.
100 For an excellent historionl summary of the Portuguese and Dutch trado, see Mr. J. Hornell's Saered Chank of India, 4-5.