Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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Sec. VI] STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATĨ SŪTRA financial policy were the main fountains of state income and prosperity.
The study of the above evidences clearly suggests that the revenue was collected by the government officials concerned with the work from land-tax in cash and kind in the form of cattle) and customs on trade and commerce, fines and other sources.
On certain occasion, particularly the birth-day ceremony of a new born prince, the king ordered the remission of taxes and customs (ukkaram and ussukkan) and the closing down of all land transactions of the state by a royal proclamation that the land was not to be cultivated (ukkitlan), donated (adijjan) and measured (amijjan), but he promulgated his order to the effect of raising the standard of weight (māņummānavaddhanam).
The study of these evidences reveals that the state paid much attention to the land, trade and commerce which brought material prosperity to the people, the royal exchequer and the society as a whole.
The Bhs refers to many kinds of trade and commerce, such as, charcoal business (ingālakamme), cutting and selling of forest trees (vanakamme), making and selling of carts (sāļikamme), earning of fare by transport-business (Whädikamme), cultivation (ploughing and spading, phoạikamme), ivory-business (datavanijje), lac-business (lalckcha-vānijje), traffic in hair e. g. wool (kesavānijje), liquor-business (rasavāņijje), poison-business (visavānijie), crushing of sesame, sugarcane etc. by machinery Gjarta. pilanakamme), castrating of animals, bulls, etc. (nillar chanakamme), setting fire to woods (davaggidāvanayā), draining lakes and ponds (saradahatalāyaparisosanayā), and running of brothels (asata. posanaya)' and economic and industrial guilds organized and carried on by private merchants and industrialists. They were certainly the largest sources of the state revenue, only next to that of land-tax.
1 Bhs, 11, 11, 429.
-3 16, 8, 5, 330. $ 16, 2, 5, 107; 12, 1, 437; 18, 2, 618.