THE LAST PHASE IN NORTHERN INDIA 169 
one-half the produce, while in particular localities there were 
various allowances and deductions, which further com- 
plicate the figures; but for land in regular cultivation, and 
not liable to injury from special causes, it may be said that 
the rates recognised in the annual agreements between 
Headmen and peasants ranged upwards, rather than down- 
wards, from 20 ser in the maund (40 ser) of produce, and 
that 22} ser was a common figure, representing 20 ser for 
the Intermediary and 2} for the Brotherhood. This 
general standard of payments applied to the ordinary 
cultivated land. For specially precarious fields, the charges 
ranged from one-third to one-fourth, and down to one- 
eighth, while there were recognised local scales of payment 
for land which had been uncultivated for some time. 
As regards the methods of assessing the charge, a dis- 
tinction must be drawn between the Doab, where the agree- 
ments usually rested on the area sown, and the country 
beyond the Ganges, where they usually rested on the 
produce gathered. In Rohilkhand and Gorakhpur, those 
crops which are handled on the threshing-floor were ordi- 
narily subjected to Estimation, and the estimated amount 
according to the agreed share was valued at the prices 
ruling in the nearest market, so that what changed hands 
was cash, not grain. Actual division of the produce was 
rare, but it was the regular way of settling disputes over the 
estimate in the few cases where these occurred. For such 
crops as are not handled on the threshing-floor, the agree- 
ments provided for cash payments at rates per bigha, 
which appear to have been recognised in particular localities, 
but differed even within a village according to the productive 
quality of the soil! Thus in ordinary cases the Headman 
received money from the peasants, though in exceptional 
cases he might have to market a share of grain in order to 
provide cash for paying the revenue. 
In the Doab. the agreements usually fixed payments in 
' In Rohilkhand these rates were known as zabti, a term which still 
survives. It may safely be referred to zabt, the official name for Akbar’s 
developed revenue-system, the characteristic feature of which was cash- 
rates varying with the crop. The crops paying zabti rates were usually 
(1) sugarcane and indigo, where the produce must be worked up as it is 
cut; (2) poppy, and vegetables or garden crops, where the produce is 
gathered from dav to dav