Appendix F. 
LEGENDS OF TODAR MAL. 
[ HAVE mentioned in Chapter IV that, in describing Todar Mal’s 
work, I have followed the contemporary records, and discarded 
the account contained in the eighteenth-century chronicle of 
Khwafi Khan: my reasons for discarding it are given in this 
Appendix. 
The account in question is introduced by the statement that 
Todar Mal’s work was proverbial throughout Hindustan, and 
consequently some notice of him was required. It then records 
in succession his activities in connection with the coinage, his 
methods of assessment, and his system of advances to peasants; 
and then breaks into a long lament on the degeneracy of the 
writer's days, when nobody paid any heed to the peasants, the 
land had reverted to jungle, and an upright official was popularly 
regarded as an incompetent fool. 
As regards coinage, this account asserts definitely that Todar 
Mal introduced the silver rupee of 11 (sic) mashas, superseding 
the “black” tanka, which up to his time was the only currency; 
silver tankas had indeed been struck, but they were used only 
for rewards to foreign envoys and to artists were not generally 
current, and were sold as bullion. Now the Ain records (i. 26) 
that the silver rupee, of 11} mashas, was introduced in the time 
of Sher Shah. It is quite incredible that the official record of 
Akbar’s administration should deprive him of the credit of this 
reform if he was entitled to it; while the extant specimens of the 
silver coinage of Sher Shah and Islim Shih are so numerous as 
to place the fact of their currency beyond dispute. In this 
case, then, the writer of the account has clearly credited his hero, 
Todar Mal, with the achievement of an earlier reformer; and 
consequently the account as a whole is not above suspicion. 
As regards Todar Mal’s methods of assessment, the description 
given is as follows: 
For grain-crops of both seasons depending on the rains, Todar 
Mal settled that half the yield should be taken as revenue. 
For irrigated crops (grain, pulse, sugarcane, opium, turmeric, 
etc.), after one-fourth had been deducted for expenses, one-third 
was taken for grain, while for high-class crops like sugarcane, 
etc., the rates varied, 1/4,1/5,1/6, or 1/7, according to the crop. 
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