DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12673#0213
194 GOA AND THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.
When the Hindoo law authorizes a twelfth, an
eighth, or a sixth, and at times of urgent necessity
even a fourth of the crop to be taken, specifying
the Shelbhaga, or one-sixth, as the rulers' usual
share, it appears extraordinary that this province
was exempted from all land-tax till 913,* or a.d.
1736-7. We may account for the peculiarity, how-
ever, by remembering that the country belonged,
properly speaking, to the Brahmans, who were,
in a religious point of view, the owners of the soil.
Moreover, the avowed and legitimate sources of
revenue were sufficient for the purposes of a
government that had no standing army, and whose
militia was supported chiefly by assignments of
land. The rulers, however, were anything but
wealthy : many of their perquisites were, it is true,
by a stretch of authority, converted into the means
of personal aggrandisement, but the influence of
the Brahmans, and the jealousy of the chiefs,
* Of the Malayalim sera. It is called Kolum, from a vil-
lage of that name, and dates its beginning in a.d. 824, the
time when a rich Nair merchant adorned the place with a
splendid palace and tank. Previous to its establishment, the
natives used a cycle of twelve years, each called after some
zodiacal sign. The months were also denoted by the same
terms, so that the name of the year and the month were
periodically identical.
When the Hindoo law authorizes a twelfth, an
eighth, or a sixth, and at times of urgent necessity
even a fourth of the crop to be taken, specifying
the Shelbhaga, or one-sixth, as the rulers' usual
share, it appears extraordinary that this province
was exempted from all land-tax till 913,* or a.d.
1736-7. We may account for the peculiarity, how-
ever, by remembering that the country belonged,
properly speaking, to the Brahmans, who were,
in a religious point of view, the owners of the soil.
Moreover, the avowed and legitimate sources of
revenue were sufficient for the purposes of a
government that had no standing army, and whose
militia was supported chiefly by assignments of
land. The rulers, however, were anything but
wealthy : many of their perquisites were, it is true,
by a stretch of authority, converted into the means
of personal aggrandisement, but the influence of
the Brahmans, and the jealousy of the chiefs,
* Of the Malayalim sera. It is called Kolum, from a vil-
lage of that name, and dates its beginning in a.d. 824, the
time when a rich Nair merchant adorned the place with a
splendid palace and tank. Previous to its establishment, the
natives used a cycle of twelve years, each called after some
zodiacal sign. The months were also denoted by the same
terms, so that the name of the year and the month were
periodically identical.