giving villages in charity

[Guest guest]

> > > What does it mean to give villages in charity? How can a village,

> > > presumably inhabited by villagers, be given in charity to

> > > anyone???##$$#%%?

> >

> > Since all lands in the empire belong to the King, he has liberty to give

> > away any portion of it in charity. It doesn't mean the occupants of the

> > village are part of the property, but are subjects of the King to whom

> > they will pay taxes to.

>

> Thank you Prabhu.

>

> Does that mean that the brahmana after receiving a village in charity from

> a king would start collecting taxes from the villagers? What is the

> advantage of such a donation to the brahmana, especially since we know

> that generally brahmanas would keep themselves poor thinking that wealth

> ruins good qualities in man.

 

Here is a clue:

 

"Ksatriya—how to become strong, stout, brave, no going away when there is

challenge, not to go away from fighting, to possess land, to rule over,

isvara-bhavas ca, and charity. These are the ksatriya qualifications. The

charity was given by the ksatriyas. Even there are instances that Muhammadan

rulers in this country, they also gave in charity land and temple in

Vrndavana. There are many instances. Aurangzeb gave some land, Jahangir gave

some land. There is still one temple, it was constructed by Jahangir, and

the other side of the Yamuna there is a village called Jahangir-pura. That

village was given to the brahmanas for maintaining the temple."

(SB lecture 1.7.16 -- Vrndavana, September 14, 1976)

 

It may mean either that the brahmanas themselves run the village, levying

taxes, etc. - which is rather incompatible with their dharma (SB 7.11.15-16,

8.19.17, etc.) as you mention - or the ksatriya does everything as before

and just turns over the income for their use.

 

Sometimes when when the whole world was given in charity to brahmanas (e.g.

by Sri Rama in SB 9.11.2-6), they returned it. Nothing changed but the

ksatriya earned a great piety credit.

 

Other occasions when villages were given in charity are SB 6.14.34, CCM

16.219, etc.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Your servant, bh. Jan

 

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