Krishna Deva Raya’s Taxation System

A state needs money before it can build a temple or feed an army. Vijayanagara raised that money from many small sources. Land gave the most. Trade, workshops and professions gave the rest.

What were the main sources of income?

• Land revenue, paid by farmers in cash or in kind.
• Taxes on workshops and professions, paid by craftsmen and traders.
• Customs, transit and market dues, taken on trade that passed through ports and towns.
• Yearly tribute from governors and feudal chiefs.
• Fees and fines, such as licence fees and court fines.

Why does this matter for exams?

Questions on Krishna Deva Raya’s taxes ask for the main sources, not for a long list of local dues. Learn the five groups above first. Then learn one example for each.

Land was the biggest source of income. The state did not charge one flat rate. It looked at the land first and then fixed the tax.

How was land sorted?

Officers surveyed the land and sorted it by type. The common South Indian words were nansey for wet land and punsey for dry land. Toppa meant groves, orchards and woods. Pondicherry University’s text gives the same three groups as dry, wet and garden land.

What did the rate depend on?

The rate depended on the quality of the land. Wet land and dry land paid different rates. The crop and the yield also mattered. Good soil with a good water supply paid more than poor soil.

How big was the state’s share?

Sastri says the share of the produce varied from the traditional one-sixth to as much as half the gross yield. So the burden on a farmer could differ a lot from place to place.

Was it paid in cash or grain?

Land revenue was collected both in cash and in kind. The state sometimes gave its share of a village’s revenue to a temple or to learned Brahmins. That share then went to them, not to the treasury.

Farmers were not the only taxpayers. The state also taxed people who made things for a living.

Who exactly paid it?

The people who paid were the private owners of workshops. Weavers are the best-sourced example. The state did not run these workshops. It let private people run them and took a tax from their work.

What did the tax look like in practice?

Pondicherry University’s text says the state regulated production through taxes and special rights for weavers. Textiles had many dues. They included taxes on looms, on thread and carding, and on cloth sales.

Why does the name differ across books?

Sastri speaks of taxes on professions and houses. Other books say trade and industry taxes. Exam questions use the simple phrase industries tax. They all mean the same idea. People who earned from a craft paid a separate tax from the farmers.

Land and workshops were only part of the picture. The empire sat on busy trade routes, and trade paid well.

Which trade taxes mattered?

The main ones were customs duties on goods that passed through the many ports of the empire. Transit dues and market dues were also taken. Pondicherry University adds that trade in horses from the Persian Gulf made the state care about commerce.

What else filled the treasury?

• Yearly tribute from provincial governors and chiefs. Pondicherry University’s text says it was paid at the Mahanavami festival.
• Licence fees of several kinds.
• Court fines.

Was the burden light?

No. Sastri notes that most of these taxes were farmed out to the highest bidder. He says the overall impression is of high and even oppressive taxation.

The king could not visit every village. Two groups collected the money for him.

What were the amara-nayakas?

NCERT explains that amara-nayakas were military commanders. The raya gave them territories to govern. They collected taxes and dues from peasants, craftspersons and traders in that area.

What did they keep?

They kept part of the revenue for themselves. They also used it to maintain a set number of horses and elephants. Some of it went to temples and irrigation works. They sent tribute to the king every year.

What did the Portuguese traveller Paes notice?

Domingo Paes was at Vijayanagara around 1520, in Krishna Deva Raya’s reign. He wrote that each captain’s revenue decided how many troops he had to keep. The king fixed that number for him.

Who else collected?

Tax collecting rights were often farmed out. A bidder paid the state a sum and then collected the dues. Sastri links this system to the heavy burden on taxpayers.

The sources name three big items of spending. They were the palace, the army and charity.

What was the four-part rule?

Sastri says Krishna Deva Raya laid down a theory. Income should be split into four equal parts. One part went to the palace and to charity. Two parts went to the army. The last part went to the reserve treasury.

Was the rule always followed?

Sastri calls it only the ideal. He says practice depended on the needs of the day. Vijayanagara was close to a war-state, so the army often took more.

What were the two treasuries?

There was a small treasury for daily payments and withdrawals. There was also a larger reserve treasury. Paes wrote that the large one was kept locked and sealed. It was opened only when the kings had great need.

Where did the rule come from?

The rule is credited to Krishna Deva Raya’s own work, the Amuktamalyada. Pondicherry University’s text repeats it. Sastri presents it as the king’s stated theory, not as a measured budget.

The Krishna Temple at Hampi was built by Krishnadevaraya in 1513 CE.

What happened at Udayagiri?

In 1513 a Vijayanagara army besieged the hill fort of Udayagiri, then held by the king of Orissa. Krishna Deva Raya joined the siege. The fort fell after about a year and a half. The Gajapati ruler, Prataparudra, tried to raise the siege and was defeated.

What did the king bring back?

He brought back an image of Balakrishna from Udayagiri. He set it up in Vijayanagara in a new shrine of Krishnasvami, built in 1513. Sewell and Sastri both record this.

What do the sources not say?

They say the king built the shrine. They do not give its cost or name the account that paid for it. So the link to the royal treasury is a fair reading of how a king built temples. It is not a recorded figure.