THE SAYYID AND AFGHAN DYNASTIES 67

In these circumstances, it is, at the least, improbable
that any general agrarian measures were instituted, still
less, enforced. The conditions would make for diversity of
practice in assessment and collection, and the probabilities
are that each individual dealt with the peasants very much
as he chose. We may guess that Group-assessment gained
ground at the expense of Sharing or Measurement, because
1t was more suitable to the conditions which prevailed, but
we have no precise knowledge on the subject. A few
casual references! show that Assignments were given, and
that is practically the only definite fact which I have found.
In the year 1451 the Sayyid dynasty gave place to the
Afghan family of Lodi, and Delhi began to recover a part
of its former position. The southern kingdoms, indeed,
remained independent, but the Afghan power extended
eastwards; and, after the final reduction of Jaunpur in
1493, it can fairly be described as holding the North of
India. I have found no contemporary authority for the
Lodi dynasty, and the later records? are in many respects
unsatisfactory; but they indicate that during this period
the Assignment was the most important agrarian institution,
 and that it had now taken the form which is familiar
in the Mogul period, that is to say, the assignee was bound,
not merely to loyalty and personal service, but to the maintenance,
 out of the assigned Income, of a body of troops
available for the King’s needs. Assignments would thus
be fewer in number, but individually more extensive, than
in the reign of Firiz. Bahlil, the founder of the dynasty,
appears to have based his throne definitely on this institution;
 it was the offer of Assignments® which attracted
to India the Afghan leaders who constituted his effective
strength: holders of large Assignments were expected to

t E.g., we are told (Elliot, v. 71, 75) that the Lodi family held various
Assignments under the Sayyid dynasty.
3 The Tarikh-s Daudi dates from the reign of Jahangir, the Tarikh-i
Salatin from late in the reign of Akbar, and the Makhzan-i Afghani was
completed in 1612. For the two former, I have to depend on the trans:
lations in Elliot, iv, v; for the last, I have used also Borns translation,
“History of the Afghans,” and the RAS MS. 60 (Morley), which was used
by Dorn.
3 Elliot, iv. 308-10.
idem. iv. 410, Vv. 75

The existence of Reserved land is indicated in