The agrarian system of Moslem India

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804119261

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-188010

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Moreland, William Harrison http://d-nb.info/gnd/172263670

Title:: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Edition:: 2. ed. Reissue (d. Ausg. Cambridge) 1929; [Reprint]

Place of publication:: Delhi

Publisher:: Oriental Books, Munshiram Manoharlal

Year of publication:: 1968

Scope:: XVII, 296 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter II. The 13th and 14th centuries

Collection:: Economics Books

6o THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA deputed to report how far the floods caused by each canal had extended, and that the King was exceedingly ‘pleased when he heard of widespread inundation. The canals were thus of a somewhat clementary type, and should not be thought of in terms of those which now exist in the Punjab, but their value to the country cannot be questioned: the same chronicler records (p. 128) that in the country round Hissar, where formerly only kharif crops were grown, both kharif and rabi crops could be matured with the aid of the canal. The extent of their value can be inferred from the fact that they brought in an annual income of two lakhs of tankas; this is not a large sum when compared with the Valuation of the kingdom (5% krors), but obviously it was important for the limited areas where water was made available. I'he assessment of this irrigation-revenue furnishes some points of interest. To begin with, the King referred to an assembly of jurists the question whether he could lawfully claim any income in return for his outlay, and was informed that it was lawful to take “Water-right” (hagq-i shirb), a term of Islamic law, denoting a right, separate from that of the holder of land, arising from the provision of water. The jurists defined this right as “one-tenth,” presumably of the produce, and the King proceeded to assessment ac- cordingly. The chronicler’s account of the procedure (Afif, 130) is highly technical, and I am not absolutely certain of its meaning, but a distinction was apparently drawn between existing villages, and the new “colonies” (in the modern Indian sense of the word) which were founded in country previously uncultivated. From the former, water- right was collected, and its amount, together with the entire revenue derived from the “colonies,” was excluded from the public accounts .and paid into a special treasury, the receipts of which were earmarked for the King’s charitable expenditure. 1 The Hedaya, translated by C. Hamilton, iv. 147. Thomas, in his Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, p. 271n, took the assessment as ten per cent. on the total outlay, but it seems to me doubtful whether an idea so closely allied to usury would have found favour with Moslem jurists of the period. I have found no authority showing how water-right was to be calculated in ordinarv cases.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation