Consider the following statements:

The terms bali, bhaga and sulka have been interpreted as taxes of various kinds.

These were collected at a specified time and regularly and were of precisely defined amount.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Question

The terms bali, bhaga and sulka have been interpreted as taxes of various kinds. But none of these were collected at a specified time and regularly, nor were they of a precisely defined amount. Further, there were no specific occupational groups from whom they were collected or no designated persons who made the collection. All these conditions were fulfilled for the first time only in the post-Vedic period when taxes were collected and these terms were used as taxes.
In Vedic texts, the bali is a generalised offering made by the vis and may better be translated as tribute or a prestation, rather than a tax.
Bhaga in the sense of share, relates to the distribution of spoils after a raid or the division of prestations on ritual occasions.
The term sulka in the Rig Veda does not mean a tax, but is used in the sense of a measure of value, and in the Atharva Veda, the context is generally that of the weak paying a price to the strong.

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The terms bali, bhaga and sulka have been interpreted as taxes of various kinds. But none of these were collected at a specified time and regularly, nor were they of a precisely defined amount. Further, there were no specific occupational groups from whom they were collected or no designated persons who made the collection. All these conditions were fulfilled for the first time only in the post-Vedic period when taxes were collected and these terms were used as taxes.
In Vedic texts, the bali is a generalised offering made by the vis and may better be translated as tribute or a prestation, rather than a tax.
Bhaga in the sense of share, relates to the distribution of spoils after a raid or the division of prestations on ritual occasions.
The term sulka in the Rig Veda does not mean a tax, but is used in the sense of a measure of value, and in the Atharva Veda, the context is generally that of the weak paying a price to the strong.

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