98 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
Empire was in the hands of assignees. Some previous 
writers on the subject (including myself) have interpreted 
the decision taken by Akbar in the 18th year as showing 
that he disliked the Assignment-system, and determined 
to do without it; but, the facts summarised above render 
this interpretation improbable. It is possible that, for 
the time being, he was disgusted with the system, and tried 
to find an alternative, but, if so, five years’ experience of 
the alternative sufficed to convince him; it is, I think, 
more probable that his action amounted only to a suspension 
of the system until adequate data could be collected for a 
really serviceable Valuation, and that: he restored it as 
soon as the necessary experience had been gained. What- 
ever view! may be taken on this question, the fact remains 
that, from the 25th year onward, the Assignment again 
became a normal feature of the agrarian system of the Em- 
pire as a whole, and it retained this position until the end 
of the seventeenth century. 
It has been said above that an assignee was permitted to 
realise only his sanctioned Income, and was required to 
account to the treasury for any sums which he might collect 
in excess. I have not, however, found any important 
references to this topic during Akbar’s reign, and discussion 
of it may be postponed until a later period, when the 
evidence is more extensive. It is possible that the practice 
of recovery developed gradually as an alternative to fre- 
quent revisions of the Valuation, but on this point I have 
found no information; all that can be said is that there is 
no subsequent record of any general re-Valuation such as 
took place in the 24th vear. 
Before leaving the subject, a few words may be said re- 
garding the distinction between service Assignments (in- 
cluding rewards), and the various Grants and endowments 
which in the records of the period are grouped under the 
term swuyd@rghal. In practice. the distinction was one 
1 The passage in the Akbarnama (iii. 117) which describes the emergency 
goes on to say that, first, the Emperor took the country under direct 
administration. The word ‘first’ (nukhustin) may have been intended 
to denote that the measure was merely a preliminary to further action, 
but I can ind no ‘‘second’’ in the context.