2. Taxation in Ancient India

The Maurya period was between 320 and 185 BCE (before the common era). Kautilya’s name is associated with the Arthashastra though its completion probably occurred over several centuries. See McClish and Olivelle (2012, pp. ix–xxxiii).

Hindu society was divided into four main castes defined by occupations. Brahmanas or brahmins comprised the priestly class and the repository of knowledge of the epics and astronomical almanac. Kshatriyas were warriors and rulers. Vaisyas were providers of services such as medical practitioners, accountants, traders and others. Sudhras were menials such as washermen and street cleaners. Below the four-caste system existed a myriad subcastes that were considered untouchable including cremation operators, skinners of dead cattle, trappers for occupations such as snake charmers, monkey and bear dancers and others. Gandhi named the untouchables Harijans, or children of God, though they remained vulnerable and powerless. Post-independence, they formed themselves into political groups that have given them political freedom and a claim to public education and public sector jobs, not infrequently to the objection of caste-Hindus, though caste discrimination continues unabated in several geographical pockets.

Religions founded in rural societies, that grew subsequent to the visions revealed to a single founder, for example, the Christian Bible, the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib and Islam’s Quran, and others, in combination, have comprised a set of insights through the manner of living, interacting, taxing, administering, and dying in those early societies.

Rama is described as Vishnu, the god, in bravery, benevolence and justice, and attractive like the full moon. He equals the earth in perseverance but is like the conflagration fire in his wrath.

See Muniapan and Satpathy (2010, p. 645).

Note that Bharata also describes ancient India.

Muniapan and Satpathy, op. cit., pp. 651–659.

Or, the Greatness of India.

Vikramaditya was an emperor of the Gupta dynasty who ruled towards the end of the fourth century CE.

There is no exact means of knowing or reconstructing the history of such a remote past. Historians, therefore, tend to take recourse to expressions such as probably, it appears as if, it might have been, and so on.

See Sharma (2008).

See Sharma (2003).

See Basham (1967, pp. 88–89), in Sharma (2003).

Directorate of Income Tax (2012, p. 1).

Nevertheless, Kautilya—translated as the crooked one—did not refrain from recommending extreme solutions including war or internecine taking of life where preservation of the kingdom was concerned.

See Niaz (2008).

See Sharma (2005).

See Arthashastra, Book 2, Chap. 6, Verse 28. See Shome (2002).

See Niaz (2008), op. cit., pp. 5–6.

See Shang Yang (390–338 BCE) was an important statesman of the State of Qin during the Warring States period of Chinese history.

360 BCE. See Internet Classics Archive, MIT. http://​classics.​mit.​edu/​Plato/​laws.​html.

See Spengler (1969, p. 450).

See Spengler (1969), op. cit., p. 451.

See Webster’s II (1984).

This historical king himself converted to Jainism towards the end of his life, abdicated to Bindusara, his son, in 297 BCE, and travelled to the south as a renunciate, dying in the ascetic Jain manner of slow starvation.

The Vedas comprise the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. https://​byjus.​com/​free-ias-prep/​types-vedas/​ The Rigveda is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text (1800–1100 BCE).

See Maity (1957, p. 53).

See Maity (1957), op. cit., p. 60.

Chola rule was between 846 and 1279 CE. The revenue system was established primarily by Rajaraja I during the 1100s.

Directorate of Income Tax (2012, p. 2).