DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

8.3 ] DEPRECIATED ECONOMY : LOW TAXES 255
birth-status of the debtor could determine the rate of interest. This
meant in particular a specially heavy load upon the poorest cultivator,
every time the harvest failed to yield enough for the whole year. When
compound interest crept into the picture, this led to creation of a
perpetually indebted working class, which substituted for the classical
slave and feudal serf of Europe.
The Manusmrti king is a minuscule ruler. He is not asked to strike his
own coins nor to undertake large public works; at most he need punish
those who damaged ancient dams or reservoirs. According to Ms. 8.402,
he should personally regulate market prices in public, every five days.
According to 8.314-6, the penitent thief had to approach the king
with a hardwood club, stave, or spear and request chastisement; if the
king did not strike him with proper force, the unexpiated portion of the
sin would be transferred to the raja. Some commentators reserve this
for a most sinful theft, that of the brahmin’s gold (cf. 9.235 ; 11.55). Such
a king, though constantly at war against neighbours, could not have
ruled more than a county. In fact, the economy makes a sad comparison
with that of the Arth. The pana was of copper (Ms. 8.136), the silver
coin of 32 gunja weight being called ‘ancient 1 (purana). Payment is far
lower than by the Mauryan scale : “One (copper) pana must be
given (daily, says the commentator) as wages to the lowest, six to the
highest, likewise clothing every six months and one drona of grain
every month” (Ms. 7.126), This is for menials of the king ; officials are
to live off the land. The village is the main unit regulated in some detail
; towns receive no attention. The headman of a village, appainted by the
king, has perquisites of food, drink, fuel; the head over ten villages, a
family-size holding of land ; five family holdings should be allotted to
the ruler of twenty villages, (the revenues) of an entire village to the
administrator over a hundred, and (the revenue) of a town to the
lord of a thousand villages. This is a proto-feudal system. Revenues are
very low, apart from the two higher castes escaping altogether, at least
in theory. A fiftieth of (the increase in) cattle and gold, an eighth,
sixth, or twelfth part of the crops are nonnal (7.130). In times of the
treasury’s distress, he may take as much as a fourth (10.118) without