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POLITICAL HISTORY OF N. INDIA FROM JAIN SOURCES
In the Amatya-samuddeśa of the Nitiväkyämṛta the administration of revenue is put under a minister (amatya).
Sources of Revenue: The splendours of the court, the salaries of the officers and establishments, the army and multifarious activities of the state, necessitated a vast revenue. According to Kautilya and Somadeva agriculture, cattle-breeding and trades were the main sources of revenue in ancient India. Their prosperity was the prosperity of the state itself.1 Revenue during our period was derived partly from taxation and partly from sources other than taxation. From sources other than the Jain we know that the land tax was the primary source of revenue, but as most of the Jain sources of the period are of religious character they seldom yield the name and kinds of the taxes levied on. It cannot be said with certainty what exactly was the share of the product from the land that was actually collected by the state. But it is reasonable to assume that the traditional of the produce was collected in the period under review. Land, however, was measured for the purpose of taxation, for the measurements of land are often given in the inscriptions of the time. Thus the Kalvan Jain plates of Yasovarman refer to nivartana, a kind of ancient measurement which is considered to be equal to 60 yards. Another measurement by seed capacity was also in vogue during this period. The Dubkund Jain inscription tells us that Vikramasimha donated a field whose length and breadth were specified by the seeds of wheat measured by four gonis. Sometimes dronas of seeds were also applied in measurement. We also find in the Jain inscriptions that fields had their names and were always mentioned in grants with their boundaries, the word for which is Aghaja. Villages are also described by their boundaries."
Some of the grants made to the Jain temples, however, throw some light on the nature of taxes levied on to meet the expenses of the temple. The most important of such records is the Bijapur Jain inscription of the Rāṣṭrakuṭa Dhavala of Hathundi. It records the permanent (akṣaya) endowments renewed by Vidagdharaja previously made by his father
वार्ता समृद्धी सर्वाः समृद्धयो
1 Ibid., p. 93 : कृषिः पशुपालनं वणिज्या च वार्तां वेश्यानाम् ।
राज्ञः ।
Ibid, p. 88 परिपालको हि राजा सर्वेषां धर्मशन प्रोति उच्छपभागधानेन तपस्वि नोऽपि संभावयति ॥
El., XIX, pp. 69-75. 4 lbid., II, pp. 232-240. 5 Ibid.
Ibid., XIX, pp. 69-75.
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