Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 52
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
View full book text
________________
Adatst, 1923 1
EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN FAMINES
195
palace at that period, except the vetti-vari. 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, Polygars and petty chiefs.
The octroi duties and land customs were evidently levied at fixed places and on all merchandise. “All kinds of goods, even fire-wood and straw, paid these duties." The rates must have varied with variations of weight, of commodities, and of the distance travelled. They were also liable to constant enhancements at the ruler's discretion. From stray and incidental notices in the chronicles, we find, as Nelson did, that the usual octroi duty on paddy was one fanam for every eight padis or bags (i.e., a duty of 27d. on every 400 lbs). Similarly, coastal towns lovied sea-customs. An exceedingly interesting regulation regarding maritime enterprise by king Ganapati Deva of Warangal in the thirteenth century is given in the Ep. Rep., 1910, p. 107. It is not improbable that a similar policy guided other powers in later times; but no definite and dogmatic statement is possible. The vexatious imports and exports and duties, besides the innumerable tolls during the transport of goods, must have clogged considerably the ancient South Indian industry and trade, which besides were also subject to other vexatious restraints.&.
The pearl fisheries, which were an object of greedy competition among foreign exploiters, were a royal monopoly and naturally proved a lucrative source of revenue.
Such heavy and oppressive taxation, which undoubtedly contributed much to the often recurring famines in Southern India, is after all quite in consonance with the traditions of the country. From Vedic times (B.C. 2000-1500), when the Heaven-world is spoken of as a place where no taxes are paid by the weak to the mighty, we have an unbroken record of oppressive taxation. The Epic literature (B.. 1500-800) furnishes abundant evidence of this statement. The literature of the Age of Laws and Philosophy is replete with devices for scientifically rack-renting the people ; and the art of fleecing both nobility and commons attains perfection in the Kautilyan Arthasdsfra. Readers of the Arthasdstra (tran. R. Shama Sastri) will agree with the remark of L. D. Barnett (Antiquities of India, ch III, p. 104) that the Kautilyan Arthasastra" depicts a society choking in the deadly grip of a grinding bureaucracy. On every branch of industry lay the dead hand of taxation." We have given a brief extract describing Kautilyan taxation in Appendix B. We do not however wish to convey the impression that taxation in India was never of e mild or more reasonable character. Good Epic kings who were content to tax their subjects lightly were not unknown; and the Chinese travellers, Fa Hien (A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, ch. XVI, tran. Logge) and Hiuen Tsang (Beal; Records of the Western World, ch. X) tell us that taxation in India at their time was not onerous. It is useless to give more instances. What is maintained here is that Ancient Indian History furnishes a continuous tradition of oppressive taxation which accentuated the eyils of famine, and not unfrequently was so enhanced as even to provoke famine.
We shall now pass on to the second source of information respecting this period, viz., the literature of the time, with the caution however that such literature is, generally speaking. largely coloured, and due precaution must be exercised in distilling history' out of its exaggerated descriptions.
I shall first take up the religious literature of Southern India. The Tiruvilaiyadal Purdnam which professes to be a chronicle of the Pandyan kings, contains several references to famines and droughts. In the fourteenth Miracle it is said that on account of the displacement
The above two paragraphs are largely based on the extremely valuable article of Prof. V. Rangacharya on the History of the Naik Kingdom of Madura" (Ind. Antiquory, vol. XLV, 1916).
