Short essay of the system of Taxation in Ancient India
Most of the writers of ancient India hold the view that the
success of the king depended upon the wealth he could amess in his treasury. In
the Rig Vedic period there was no system of taxation as because there was no
state at all. That was an age of cattle-rearing and the general economy of the
society depended essentially on it. The lede f the group, clan or community
never could extort something like a tax regularly. In the entire Rig Vedic
period we never came across a name of a person who was entrusted with the task
of revenue collection from the inhabitants. Though there are the terms like
‘Boli’ or ‘Bhaga’ in Rig Veda these were virtually a voluntary gift on the part
of the subjects paid to their leaders. Of course, the king or leaders of these
groups used to distribute the wealth among their subjects. Possible, they used
to distribute the wealth among their subjects. Possible, they used to
distribute a part of their plunders among the men of their groups or community
which they usually obtained by plundering other groups. Thus, during the Rig
Vedic period the king had no right to collect taxes. As was said
earlier to ‘Boli’ or ‘Bhaga’ that he used to get was a voluntary gift from his
people, not his legitimate right. In the later Vedic period, however, the king
was called the ‘Baliharita’ which meant the person who collect the ‘Bolies”. As
the collection of the ‘Bolies’ became regular, it changed its characters. What
was previously a voluntary gift now became a necessary and compulsory tax to be
paid regularly. This change of character of ‘Boli’ was essentially due to the
presence of surplus in production and wealth. Possibly from this time onward a
special group of employees were appointed known as ‘Swampadasangrahaka’. By
that time, the Vedic Society had become a caste-based society and the Vishyas
were the main producers of this surplus wealth. As such, they were the main tax
payers and the Sudras had to pay a little amount as tax. But the other two
castes – the administrator and warrior caste Kshatriyas and the Priestly caste
– the Brahamanas were exempted from paying any tax at all.
Moreover, in later Vedic period the revenue collectors were called
– ‘Samgrithitri’.during this period the power of the king had increased. As the
administration became more and more complex, greater number of employees had to
be appointed to carry on the administration smoothly. The surplus wealth that
the king had collected by dint of taxes was utilized to maintain the cost of
administration and paying away the salaries of the employees. The king became a
hard extortioner of taxes and he collected the taxes regularly. Hence the king
was defined in this period as ‘Bishamata’ – the person who eats the subjects -
specially the person belonging to vaishya-caste.The system continued during the
6th century B.C. and the process was in vague in the solasa
Mahajanapadas as well. With the growth of political power it became necessary
to keep a huge standing army for each and every kingdom and eventually it also
became necessary for the king to extort taxes regularly for maintaining his
standing army. In Pali text we find the reference of a group of government
employees who were entrusted with the task of measuring the lands; they were
called “Rajjudgahaka Amachocha.” Possibly they are also to extort the surplus
produces of the cultivators.
When the Mauryas came into power they laid special stress and
attention on the collection of revenues. The contemporary Greek records told us
that there were six Samitees consisting of five members each in Pataliputra to
look after its administration. These members were known as “Austinomoya.” The
members of the fourth Samiti were to look after the goods that were brought
into the market so that no adulterated goods could be sold. Indian literatures
of the period, have told us that the state had absolute control over the trade
and commerce of this period. According to Meghasthenes, it was the duty of the
Sixth Samiti members to collect taxes from the traders at per the rate of
one-sixth of the prices of the sold commodities. If any trader failed to pay or
denied to pay the tax he was even punished with death sentence. Possibly the
Samiti extracted taxes on foreign trades as well during the Mauryan period.
What exactly should be the role of the states in trade and
commerce has been discussed by Kautilya in his famous work ‘Arthasastra.’ To
him traders of tries to squeeze the people and hence the state should protect
the common men from the traders. A high government official, the
“Pannyadhaksha” was entrusted with this task of controlling the traders. He had
many duties. He was to implement the royal policy in view of public interest,
to arrange the supply of a commodity in case of its scarcity, to sell the goods
produced in the royal farms and factories to regulate the prices of the goods
and to determine the profit margin of the traders-which were 5% for the
indigenous traders and 10% for the foreign traders respectively.
We are not very sure about the rate of land revenue during the
Maruyan period; possibly it was one-sixth or one-fourth of the total produces.
There were some government lands or land of the king, known as ‘sita’ possibly
the state extracted two-third of the produces as the tax from the cultivators
of the land. The state used to extract another type of tax from agriculture
known as ‘Udakbhaga’ or water tax levied on the process of irrigation water. If
the water was mechanically collected from the ponds or rivers, the tax was
one-third of the produces. Thus the system of taxation on irrigation-water was
in vague as early as in 4th century B.C. The Maruyas used to
extract at least twenty two different types of taxes from the mines. In
Ashoka’s edicts we find the name of a royal employee “Bachabhumik Mahamatya”
who possibly extracted taxes on Braja or pasture lands. Meghasthenes also
told us that a herdsman or a professional hunter had to pay taxes to the state.
“Arthasastra” also told us about various other taxes like the tariff duties,
octoroi etc. Apart from these ordinary regular taxes the Mauryas also extracted
some special taxes in times of emergency. These types of emergency taxes were
called by Kautilya as “Pranoy Kara”
During the Guptas period land revenue was the main source of
earning for the state. For this period also we are not very sure about the rate
of taxes. Throughout the entries period of ancient Indian history, the king was
given the right to receive one-sixth of the total produce for which he was
given the title “Swarabhagin.” In the inscription we find the mention of two
types of revenues “Karas” and “Upakaras”. According to Prof D.C. Sarkar these two
types of taxes actually meant direct and indirect tax respectively. These was
another type of taxation known as the “Udranga”. Apart from these three types
of taxes in Western India there was another tax known as “Dhanya” usually taken
in the Maitraka Knigdom and in Northern India there was a special tax known as
“Halikkara”. Possibly the land revenue was taken in the form of the produces.
Taxes were also paid in cash which the inscriptions described as “Hiranya”. The
tax that was collected from trade and commerce was called “Sulka” and the
person who collected it called “Soulkik”.
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