ANTECEDENTS 
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Farmers by arranging to pay a fixed sum instead of 
accounting for fluctuating collections; and thus various 
institutions, which must be distinguished for the purpose 
of analysis, might be blended in practice, so that at certain 
epochs the agrarian system presents a kaleidoscopic aspect, 
with Chiefs and Farmers, headmen and collectors, each 
assuming the appearance of the others. 
Enough has perhaps been said to indicate the nature, and 
the logical, though not the historical, sequence of the 
developments from the primitive method of dividing the 
produce, but a word must be added regarding the form in 
which the State’s share was actually received. Each of the 
methods enumerated could be worked, so far as the peasant 
was concerned, either in cash or in kind, the State’s share 
of produce being valued, when this course was deemed 
convenient, at rates determined in various ways. The 
payments of Intermediaries, on the other hand, were 
ordinarily assessed, and made, in terms of cash, at any 
rate from the first century of Moslem rule! I do not know 
the date when the cash-nexus between the peasant and the 
King (or his representative) first came into existence, but 
the view that it is a modern phenomenon must be rejected 
as unhistorical; as we shall see in the next chapter, the 
peasants of the country round Delhi normally paid their 
share in cash during, at anv rate. the latter part of the 
thirteenth centurv. 
The question when these various developments originated 
is one which must be left mainly to students of the Hindu 
period. I suspect that most, if not all, of them date from 
before the Moslem conquest, but all I can do here is to 
point to some features which are probably, or certainly, 
indigenous. The most obvious example is the grant for 
religious or charitable endowment, the existence of which 
is established by surviving inscriptions, recording title- 
deeds of dates far earlier than the Moslem conquest. 
Assignments in lieu of salary were apparently recognised 
1 There are a few cases on record where some part of the revenue of a 
province was stated in commodities, e.g., elephants from Bengal, but they 
are clearly exceptional.