70 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
preventing this kind of extortion, owing to which the weak 
bore the burden of the strong: in the same way Farid told 
the headmen that he knew the oppressions and exactions 
of which they had been guilty cowards the peasants, and 
in order to check such malpractices, he fixed the payments 
to be made in connection with assessment, either the fees 
for measuring the area, or the fees for determining and 
collecting the amount of produce. Further, if in this matter 
we may trust the chronicler, who was much addicted to 
putting long speeches into his characters’ mouths, Farid 
declared the policy he intended to pursue. The headmen 
were to be confined strictly to the prescribed fees; the 
revenue was to be paid punctually, season by season; the 
assessment, though it was made on the area sown, was to 
take due account of the yield; but, a fair Demand having 
been fixed, collection was to be rigorous. Havingsettled these 
matters, he dismissed the peasants, who carried away with 
them written documents defining the terms of their tenure. 
Some villages however were in rebellion,” that is to say, 
they were not prepared to submit to the assignee’s authority; 
in order to deal with these, Farid raised local levies, plun- 
dered the rebel villages, and confined the inhabitants, until 
the headmen submitted and gave security for their good 
conduct in the future. In the case of certain rebellious 
Chiefs, his action was even more drastic, for he rejected 
their offers of submission as insincere, and exterminated the 
rebels, killing the men, enslaving their families, and bringing 
settlers from elsewhere to the ruined villages. As the result 
of these measures, we are told that rebellion ceased, the 
parganas quickly became prosperous, and Farid’s reputation 
as an expert manager spread far and wide; but after some 
time his position was affected by family quarrels, and, when 
he was displaced in favour of his half-brothers, he set out 
to seek his fortune at Ibrahim Lodi’s Court at Agra. 
It will be seen from this description that the situation 
which confronted Farid Khan was in all essentials similar 
to that which had prevailed in the fourteenth century. So 
far as the peasants were concerned, there was the funda- 
mental liability to pay a share of the produce to the King 
or his representative, and failure or refusal to pay