12 



8. The above long extracts show not only what the real 



character of the administration of the Nayak 



The enormous reve- (iynastv, who adomed their capitals with 



nue of former rulers. «' ''■•r. ii-it li ^ 



such magnificent buildings, was, but also 

 the enormous revenue which former Hindu rulers derived from ' 

 Mnd. According to the statements contained in the letters 

 of the Jesuit missionaries, the three viceroyalties of Madura, 

 Tanjore and Gingee were each bound to pay a tribute, varying 

 between 6 and 10 millions of francs or between £240,000 and 

 £400,000 to the Yijianagar sovereign, and if the Madura pro- 

 vince,- which was the most extensive of the three, paid the 

 higher sum, it is clear that the revenue taken from the ryots of 

 that province must have been at least three times that sum 

 or £1,200,000. In fact, most of the lands comprised within 

 the Madura province were in the hands of Poligars, who, it is 

 stated, paid to the local viceroys only one-third of the revenue of 

 their polliems, and out of this one-third, the viceroys had to pay 

 the tribute after defraying their own expenses. The Madura 

 province comprised the present districts, Madura, Tinnevelly, 

 Trichinopoly and a portion of the Salem district. The land re- 

 venue of these districts aggregates now 81^ lakhs of rupees 

 only, and when it is remembered that in the 16th and 17th 

 centuries much of the country now under cultivation was 

 covered with jungle and that the purchasing power of the pre- 

 cious metals was several times higher than it is at present, 

 an idea may be formed of the large share of the gross produce 

 which the Government of those days appropriated as revenue. 

 It seems probable, as, indeed, the records of the Jesuit Mission 

 state, that the tribute was seldom regularly paid, but was 

 exacted by the Vijianagar king by force of arms whenever he 

 was able to do so ; but the large amount of tribute fixed shows 

 that practically the only limit to the exactions which could be 

 made from the ryots was their ability to pay. The amount 

 of revenue taken by the sovereigns of the Madura and Tanjore 

 countries would be hardly credible, were it not for the fact that 

 there is ample evidence to show that in other parts of the pen- 

 insula the revenue taken by other sovereigns was equally great, 

 if not greater. In Orissa, it appears that in the 12th century 

 the Gangetic dynasty had a land revenue of about £450,000, or 

 a little less than three times the revenue derived by the British 

 Government from the same province, while the purchasing 

 power of the rupee was then 8 times of what it is now.'' The 

 land revenue of the whole of British India is 23 millions of 



' Vide extracts (appendix B, section I) from Hiinter'B Orissa as regards the revenue 

 derived by the Gangetio kings in the 12th century and the purchasing power of silver in 

 tboao days. 



