242 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
It seems to me to be quite impossible to read this passage as 
referring to a new assessment-system introduced after the 
failure of the one described in paragraph A. It tells us distinctly 
that certain figures had been nominally increased for the sake 
of appearances, a statement which cannot possibly refer to 
Demand-to-be-collected ; it tells us, as the Ain tells us, that the 
point was a heavy salary bill in a small kingdom; and it tells 
us also that the nominal increases made in or before the 5th 
year still remained in the records in the rrth year, and 
were used for corrupt purposes. Clearly we are not concerned 
here with any annual assessment of Demand; but if we follow 
the opening phrase, as I read it, and take the subject of the 
orders as the Valuation, the meaning is obvious. In the early 
years, the salary bill exceeded the available resources, and the 
Valuation in use was written up for the sake of appearances, so 
that officers would get Assignments yielding the sanctioned 
Income on paper, but not in fact; and these false entries remained 
in the Valuation until Akbar ordered a new one to be prepared. 
() Another account of the same transaction is given in the 
Iqbilnama (p. 213); it is clearly a paraphrase of the Akbarnama, 
but different wording enables us to see how the later writer 
understood the earlier. “In the beginning of the reign, when 
Bairim Khan was Chief Minister, the revenue officials, having 
fixed the jama of the Empire (mamalik-i mahrisa), by summary 
computation and estimate, [and], because of the large numbers 
of the army and the narrowness of the Empire, having made a 
pillar of snow, offered it to men as salary ” 
The phrase “pillar of snow” almost explains itself, but it may 
be illustrated from an anecdote told by Khwafi Khan (i. 735). 
The accountants had on one occasion prepared a long and 
fantastic list of recovery-demands against a certain collector: 
on seeing it, the Minister said, “Bring this pillar of snow into 
the sunshine, and recover whatever remains of it after the 
hot weather.” We have then a “jama of the Empire,” so in- 
flated that it could be described in this contemptuous phrase, 
offered as salary. A Demand meant to be collected could not 
possibly be described in these terms; and, taking the three 
passages together, we must conclude that jama-i wild@yat, or 
pargandt, or mamalik-i mahriisa, denotes the Valuation, on the 
basis of which Assignments were allocated. 
1t follows that paraeraphs A and B are to be read as referring