{"id":2498,"date":"2025-05-02T14:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T09:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2025-05-02T14:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T09:07:14","slug":"q-with-reference-to-forced-labour-vishti-in-india-during-the-gupta-period-which-one-of-the-following-statements-is-correct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/upsc\/q-with-reference-to-forced-labour-vishti-in-india-during-the-gupta-period-which-one-of-the-following-statements-is-correct","title":{"rendered":"Q. With reference to forced labour (Vishti) in India during the Gupta period, which one of the following statements is correct?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list mcq\">\n<li>It was considered a source of income for the State, a sort of tax paid by the people.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was totally absent in the Madhya Pradesh and Kathiawar regions of the Gupta Empire.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The forced labourer was entitled to weekly wages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The eldest son of the labourer was sent as the forced labourer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Answer:<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>(a) It was considered a source of income for the State, a sort of tax paid by the people.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"taxes-gupta-period\">Taxes (Gupta Period):<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Vishti<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In the<strong>\u00a0Gupta period<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Vishti or forced labor\u00a0<\/strong>became a\u00a0<strong>source of income<\/strong>\u00a0for the state\u00a0and was looked upon as a sort of taxation paid by the people.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Vishti was forced labour in lieu of tax and therefore\u00a0<strong>not entitled to weekly wages<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Anyone can be sent as the forced labourer,<\/strong>\u00a0not particularly from the eldest son of the labourer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Most of the inscriptions refers to Vishti as more prevalent in the<strong>\u00a0Madhya Pradesh and Kathiawar<\/strong>\u00a0regions of the Gupta Empire.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vishti was part of the broader\u00a0<strong>Varnashrama system<\/strong>\u00a0during the Gupta period, reflecting the hierarchical socio-political structure. While it was primarily seen as a tax obligation, it was often\u00a0<strong>imposed on the lower classes, especially peasants and common workers.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Gupta Empire (circa 4th to 6th century CE)<\/strong>\u00a0is known for its\u00a0<strong>efficient administration, flourishing arts, and advancements in science and mathematics<\/strong>, but\u00a0<strong>social inequality and labour impositions such as Vishti were common<\/strong>\u00a0during this period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Uparikara<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<strong>Levied on cloth, oil, etc<\/strong>. when taken from one city to another.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Shulka<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<strong>Commercial tax paid by the organisation of the traders<\/strong>. Non-payment of which resulted in cancellation of the right to trade and a fine amounting to eight times of the original Shulka.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Answer:&nbsp;(a) It was considered a source of income for the State, a sort of tax paid by the people. Taxes (Gupta Period):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[40],"years":[54],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upsc","category-prelims","tag-ancient-history","years-54"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"UPSC"},{"value":3,"label":"Prelims"}],"post_tag":[{"value":40,"label":"Ancient History"}],"years":[{"value":54,"label":"2019"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"LotusArise","author_link":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/author\/team-lotusarise"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"UPSC","slug":"upsc","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1269,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":1269,"category_description":"","cat_name":"UPSC","category_nicename":"upsc","category_parent":0},{"term_id":3,"name":"Prelims","slug":"prelims","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":1,"count":1251,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":1251,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Prelims","category_nicename":"prelims","category_parent":1}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":40,"name":"Ancient History","slug":"ancient-history","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":40,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":108,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/years?post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}