248 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA (D] TRANSLATION. And when, through the wisdom of the Sovereign, the Empire was greatly extended, every year there used to be abundant distress in price- ascertainment, and various difficulties used to arise from delay. Sometimes the peasant would have to complain of [?] excess- demand, and sometimes the assignee would have to lament arrears. His Majesty proposed a remedy, and established the jama-i dahsdla (which gave general satisfaction). INTERPRETATION. The emergency is clear. With the ex- tension of the Empire, delays in fixing commutation-prices became serious, and caused much inconvenience. Obviously, collections must start promptly if they are to be made at all; and, when the prices required Imperial sanction, as we have seen was the case, local officers would sometimes have to start col- lections in advance of orders. Then, when the orders came, there would be difficulties if the sanctioned rates proved to be different from those which had been assumed. I am not sure of the exact force of afzinkhwdhi. If it means “‘ excess-demands” as I have rendered it, the point would be that peasants had paid too much: if it means ‘“‘supplementary-demands,” they would have paid too little; but in either case the inconvenience to peasants, as well as to assignees, is obvious. The emergency then is clear, but the remedy is obscure. So far in this chapter of the Ain jama has meant Valuation, but a new Valuation would be no remedy for the evil stated. If the word has here its other technical sense of Demand, we must suppose that Akbar fixed cash-demands in lump sums, as they are fixed at the present day; but we know from other passages, notably Akbarndma, iii. 381, and Ain-i Amalguzar, that such demands were not fixed. What was done was to introduce the Dastirs, or schedules of cash-Demand rates, applicable in place of grain-rates, so that the need for com- mutation disappeared. I know of no passage where jama can possibly mean schedules of rates, or anything of the kind: in both the technical senses. the root-idea of ‘aggregate’ is clearly present. The parallel passage in the Akbarnama (iii. 282), is again mportant. One of the occurrences of the 24th vear