Agriculture and Land Revenue in the Mauryan Empire

A dam built under one dynasty got repaired under a second, then again under a third. This article covers Mauryan agriculture and land revenue, and the irrigation infrastructure that outlived every empire that touched it.

Mauryan Agriculture and Land Revenue

AncHist0070

NOT FLAT

Bhaga Was Graduated

Rate set by irrigation method, not one fixed fraction

TWO SYSTEMS

Sita and Private Land

Crown farms alongside ordinary taxed farmland

REAL EXAMPLE

Tax Relief at Lumbini

A real inscription records Ashoka cutting its taxes

OUTLASTED EMPIRES

Sudarshan Lake

Built by the Mauryas, repaired by two later dynasties

On the “one-sixth” figure: it’s widely repeated, but Kautilya’s Arthashastra itself describes a graduated water-rate scale, not one flat fraction. A single fixed fraction appears in a different text, the later Manusmriti.

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Timeline

• Chandragupta Maurya’s reign: governor Pushyagupta builds Sudarshan Lake, a major irrigation reservoir.
• Ashoka’s reign: governor Tushaspa adds irrigation channels to the same reservoir.
• Ongoing, per the Arthashastra: the state runs crown-owned Sita land directly, alongside ordinary taxed private farmland.
• Ashoka’s 20th regnal year, c. 249 BCE: the Rummindei pillar edict grants Lumbini a real, recorded tax reduction.
• 2nd century CE: the Saka king Rudradaman I repairs Sudarshan Lake, without forced labour, per his own inscription.
• 5th century CE: Gupta-era officials repair the same lake again, after a second major breach.

Bhaga: A Graduated Tax, Not a Flat Rate Need to Know

• The main Mauryan land tax was called Bhaga, a share of a farmer’s produce. It’s often popularly cited as a flat one-sixth.
• Kautilya’s Arthashastra itself describes something more specific: a water-rate scale that varies by irrigation method, in its chapter on the Superintendent of Agriculture.
• Fields watered by hand paid roughly a fifth of their produce. Fields using shoulder-carried water paid a quarter. Fields using mechanical lifting devices or channels paid up to a third.
• A flat one-sixth figure does appear in Indian textual tradition, but in a different text. The later Manusmriti sets the king’s grain share at one-sixth, one-eighth, or one-twelfth, graded by how difficult the crop was to produce.
• The idea of a produce-share tax itself is older than the Mauryas. Later Vedic kings already collected a similar tax, also called bhaga, roughly one-sixth of the harvest. See AncHist0047 — Agriculture in the Vedic Age for that earlier system.

Sita Land: Where the State Was the Farmer Need to Know

• Alongside ordinary taxed private farmland, the Mauryan state directly ran its own crown land, called Sita.
• An official called the Sitadhyaksha, Superintendent of Agriculture, ran this crown land. He procured seed, supervised labour, and scheduled irrigation.
• Sita land was worked by several different groups at once: enslaved labourers (dasa), hired workers (karmakara), and people working off debts or sentences.
• Sharecroppers also worked Sita land, for a produce share rather than a wage. They paid the state a quarter to a fifth of the crop, or up to half if the state supplied the seed and oxen.
• The Sitadhyaksha also matched crops to specific microsites. Riverbank land grew gourds, land near overflow channels grew sugarcane and grapes, and low-lying ground grew fast-growing green crops.

Sudarshan Lake: Infrastructure That Outlasted Empires Good to Know

• Sudarshan Lake began as a Mauryan reservoir, built by governor Pushyagupta under Chandragupta Maurya, then improved with irrigation channels under Ashoka’s governor Tushaspa.
• Farmers who used state-built irrigation, like this lake, paid an extra water tax, called udakabhaga, on top of ordinary Bhaga.
• Centuries later, a major breach destroyed the dam. The Saka king Rudradaman I had it repaired in the 2nd century CE.
• His own inscription records that the repair was done without oppressing local people, through taxes or forced labour. That detail is specific enough to suggest forced labour was otherwise common for projects this size.
• The lake breached again, and Gupta-era officials, Parnadatta and his son Chakrapalita, repaired it a second time in the 5th century CE. One dam, rebuilt across three separate ruling dynasties.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. What is Bhaga, in the context of Mauryan land revenue?

A share of a farmer’s produce, collected by the state

A tax on goods moving through the empire

A fine imposed only on crown-land sharecroppers

A toll charged only at river crossings

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Tax Policy in Practice: The Lumbini Example Great to Know

• The Rummindei pillar edict stands at the Buddha’s birthplace, Lumbini, Nepal. It is a real, physically surviving example of Mauryan land-revenue policy applied to one specific place.
• Ashoka visited Lumbini in person, in his 20th year as king, and had a pillar raised to mark the spot.
• The edict grants Lumbini two separate benefits. It gives full exemption from bali, an older, more tribute-like levy, plus a cut in ordinary Bhaga down to one-eighth of produce.
• Kautilya’s own writing also urges restraint in collecting Bhaga. It compares taxation to picking only ripe fruit. It tells the king not to tax people on poor land, or people doing state-beneficial work like land reclamation.
• For the Mauryan state’s wider administrative structure, coinage, and spy network, see AncHist0015 — Mauryan Administration and Economy.