APPENDIX G 
265 
an adjustment of the existing Valuation would be a natural 
proceeding. 
The figures for Tatta, or Lower Sind, which was also a later 
acquisition, contain no indications of value for the present 
purpose; but, taking Bengal, Khandesh, and Berar together, it 
may fairly be said that there is no difficulty in the view that the 
figures which we possess represent initial Valuations made at, or 
shortly after, annexation, and based on the records of the previous 
governments. In the case of Bengal, we do not know whether 
the earlier figures were accepted as they stood, or were adjusted; 
in the other two provinces, we know that the earlier figures were 
increased by the first Mogul rulers. On the other hand, the 
Bengal figures cannot be read as a statement of the actual 
Demand; and there is no particular reason for taking the figures 
for Khandesh or Berar in this sense. 
The considerations which have now been stated do not amount 
to formal proof, but they seem to me to establish a definite 
probability that the statistics in the “Account” reproduce the 
Valuation which was in use in the Revenue Ministry at the time 
when it was compiled. On this view, their value for the historian 
is substantially greater than I had previously supposed. Taking 
them as representing the Demand for a single, unspecified, year, 
it was necessary to ask whether the year was typical of the period, 
or was exceptional, and that question could not be answered 
with entire confidence. Taking them as representing the Valua- 
tion, we have the data on which the Ministry relied for a very 
important branch of the administration. It is true that similar 
data had been falsified on two occasions earlier in the reign; but 
it is also true that on each occasion Akbar had intervened to put 
things right. It is reasonable to suppose that he took measures 
to secure that the third Valuation for the older provinces, 
made in the 24th year, should be honestly maintained, and the 
absence of any later record of a general re-Valuation suggests 
that this was done effectively. For the older provinces, then, 
we have, on this view, data which were good enough for the ad- 
ministration, indicating the Income which could be expected to 
accrue: the figures for the later acquisitions would necessarily 
be of less value, because based on less experience. 
I suggest then that the figures we possess for the older pro- 
vinces are most probably the Valuation based on the ten-year 
average of assessed area and Demand calculated in the 24th 
vear, but modified in detail on experience gained in the next