202 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
arrangement would necessarily offer a prospect of re- 
muneration for headmen or farmers, sufficient at least to 
make it worth their while to enter into it. Inside the 
village, this Demand would be realised by the headmen from 
the individual peasants by a charge on the plough, or by 
Sharing, or by Measurement, according to whatever custom 
might have grown up in the locality; and it would be open 
to the King or Chief at any time to dispense with the head- 
men or farmers, and enter into direct relations with the 
péasants on the basis of the customary method. whatever 
it might be. 
In such an environment, the establishment of Moslem 
rule would take one of two forms. If the Hindu King or 
Chief submitted, and agreed to pay tribute, things would 
go on as before, except that the Chief, no longer a King, 
would probably try to recover the amount of the tribute 
from his villages by increasing the Demand on them, a 
process which would be possible in some conditions, if not 
in all. If the King or Chief did not submit, and lost his 
position by conquest, the conquerors would step into his 
place, and would probably continue the existing relations 
with the villages as the line of least resistance, until cir- 
cumstances arose which called for a change. 
The first recorded change is that which was made by 
Alauddin Khalji; and the motives by which he was in- 
fluenced, as they are indicated by the chronicler, are 
consistent with the view that the position which I have 
sketched hypothetically prevailed in fact during the 
thirteenth century. The Chiefs and headmen, we are told, 
were retaining a share of the income of the kingdom which 
rendered them politically dangerous, while the burden of 
the Demand was unequally distributed as between the strong 
and the weak. Consequently Alauddin set Chiefs and head- 
men aside, and entered into direct relations with the 
peasants of a large portion of the kingdom, selecting for 
general adoption one of the various methods of detailed 
assessment which prevailed at the time. 
In the circumstances of the period, his action must be 
regarded as the four de force of an exceptionally strong 
administrator. and his svstem died with him. A verv few