DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

7.6] DEPRECIATION OF CURRENCY 223
pious Asoka could not exempt Lujnmini, the village of the Sakyan
Teacher’s birth, entirely from taxes. There were sound economic reasons
ior Asoka’s change to rule by morality, from the precepts of a book which
not even its greatest admirer could accuse of being moral.
7.6. The Arthaiastra does not make caste the primary basis for
dasses. One prominent upper class is covered without specification of
caste by the dual term paura-janapada. The first component means
‘city dweller’, the second, ‘inhabitant of the district’. The two are not
completely antithetical designations for urban and rural citizens, for every
janapada district had its city headquarters, every city its janapada
hinterland. The context makes it clear that these are not just any residents,
but propertied citizens who had a strong following (presumably from
tribal splinters), enjoyed a special position with respect to the state,
and constituted public opinion. The opinion was not expressed by
plebiscite or vote, but ascertained by spies and provocateurs (Arth. 1.13)
who served in a way for the modern public opinion poll by
questionnaire, Mass Observation, and sample-survey techniques. The
respect and consideration they obtained from the state as a class is
seen from the injunction (Arth. 1.9) that a minister should be chosen
from the janapadas, i.e. should not be from another district. This
indicates that every janapada administrative unit had its own board
or council of ministers, as reported by Megasthenes. In Arth. 8.1,
Kautalya maintains against Para-sara that the rural janapadas should be
wooed as stronger than the urban pauras. The king has to set apart
one-eighth of the entire day specially, to deal with the affairs of the
paura-janapadas in court (Arth. 1.19). Tf discontented, they could
destroy a new ruler (Arth. 13.5). From Arth. 1.13. it is clear that these
solid citizens paid the standard tax of a sixth on produce, whereas the
peasant on the slta land was lucky if he ultimately managed to retain
a half for himself, for the bas ; c tax there was a fourth, with all sorts of
snecial dues in addition. These magnates had undoubtedly evolved
from the earlier Sreyas. The question must therefore be asked: how
did these citizens make their living ? For those in the city the income
might have originated in financing trade and manufacture.