INTRODUCTION 
xvii 
literature which, when collected and explored, will throw 
much additional light on some of the topics where I have 
felt the lack of material most acutely; and, despite the 
pessimistic views prevalent in some quarters on the subject, 
I hold to the belief that, scattered here and there, mainly 
in private hands, there must be many documents relating 
to grants, assignments, and other forms of tenure, as well 
as to certain other aspects of agrarian administration, 
which, if they could be brought to light, would enable some 
future student to convert this essay into a history, by 
correcting my mistakes, and filling the gaps in my informa- 
tion. We know that such documents must have existed 
in, literally, enormous quantities; we know that a few of 
them have come to light in the present century; we do not 
know how many survive; and all we can be sure of is that 
the survivors are perishing year by year. I cannot now 
take an active part in the search for such documents, but 
I must not let pass this opportunity of appealing to the 
local historical societies and similar bodies at work in 
India, to grapple with this question in earnest, and to in- 
vestigate in particular the treasures of the families which 
have a long tradition of service under the State, as qaniingos, 
or in other positions in the local administration. Discoveries 
may be few, but the value of such documents rises in pro- 
portion to their rarity, and their location cannot be foreseen. 
Our knowledge of the form and content of Akbar’s charitable 
grants of land has been materially increased by the dis- 
covery of a bundle of old papers preserved by a Parsi 
family in Gujarat, a locality where one would scarcely have 
set out to search for Mogul documents; and it is still possible 
to hope for other discoveries of the same kind. The sys- 
tematic collection and publication of such documents would 
furnish material of inestimable value for the future historian, 
not merely of the agrarian system, but of the whole life 
of the people of India.