Five Ancient Indian Thoughts on Governance and Taxation
Excerpts from the Shanti Parvan of the Mahabharata
The grand epic of Mahabharata is one of the foundational heritage of India.
The nucleus of the story is simple. It revolves around the feud between two warring factions of the Kuru family — Pandavas and Kauravas.
The feud culminates in a massive 18-days-long war. The war ends in the victory of the Pandavas (5 brothers, of whom Yudhisthira is the eldest); it, however, comes at an overwhelming cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.
As Yudhisthira prepares to ascend to the throne, he first decides to visit the dying patriarch Bhishma. A casualty of the war himself, Bhishma is the greatest warrior of the Kuru clan and statesman of the highest caliber. Yudhisthira’s inquisitive dialogue with Bhishma spans the Shanti and the Anushasana Parvans of the Mahabharata.
In his dying moments, Bhishma advises Yudhisthira on the intricacies of Raj-Dharma. The term Raj-Dharma is a broad term including governance, jurisprudence, personal behavior of the king, and policy-making.
- A king who wishes for a safe state must spend on defense and invest in keeping the peace. A king who desires this should incorporate a tax for this purpose in their regime. (Shanti Parvan 12.69)
- It is mentioned in multiple places that the overall taxation should constitute 1/6th of a person’s income. (12.71)
- A king ought to focus on empowering the livelihoods of the people. In Mahabharata, the three activities are mentioned in this context: agriculture, cattle and animal husbandry, and trade. Bhishma also advises Yudhisthira to protect people engaged in these activities. (12.89)
- Like a gardener who nurtures their garden and only plucks the minimum required flowers and takes only the necessary amount of wood, a king must tax their people carefully. (12.72)
- A king should collect taxes considering the context of time and place, and the taxes should be increased gradually. (12.89)
These are just some excerpts from the Shanti-Parvan, which along with the subsequent Anushasana-parvan, remains a treasure trove of ancient insights on the best practices of human behavior in various contexts.
