The agrarian system of Moslem India

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804119261

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-188010

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Moreland, William Harrison http://d-nb.info/gnd/172263670

Title:: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Edition:: 2. ed. Reissue (d. Ausg. Cambridge) 1929; [Reprint]

Place of publication:: Delhi

Publisher:: Oriental Books, Munshiram Manoharlal

Year of publication:: 1968

Scope:: XVII, 296 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. The Sayyid and Afghan dynasties

Collection:: Economics Books

THE REIGN OF AKBAR (1556-1605) 101 must not be taken too literally. His account of the col- lectors is a brief réview of a somewhat lengthy story; he did not trouble to set out the dates, but concentrated, as I read it, on the points which seemed to him of interest. The following! is the portion which concerns us. In this year [nineteenth regnal], a new idea reached the heart for extending the cultivation of the country and improving the condition of the peasants. The parganas of the empire, dry or irrigated, in towns or hills, in deserts or jungles, by rivers, reservoirs, or wells, were all to be measured . . . so that in the course of three years all the waste land should be cultivated and the treasury be benefited . . . . Eventually these regulations were not properly observed. A great portion of the country was laid waste through the rapacity of the collectors, the wives and children of the peasants were sold and scattered abroad, and everything was thrown into confusion. But the collectors were brought to account [muhdsaba] by Rija Todar Mal, and many good men died from the severe beatings which were administered, and from the tortures of the rack and pincers. So many died from protracted con- Ainement in the prisons of the revenue authorities that there was no need of executioner or swordsman, and no one cared to find them graves or graveclothes. These paragraphs furnish a good illustration of Badaiini’s methods of work. The opening sentences are based on Nizimuddin Ahmad’s Tabaqat-i Akbari, which he used as the foundation of his chronicle, but the wording is heightened almost to the point of distortion; and he then breaks the chronological sequence of his narrative to record the rest of the story, which is not alluded to in the earlier chronicle. The points which require our attention are three, the motive for the appointment of collectors, their sub- sequent misconduct, and Todar Mal’s drastic measures of audit As regards motive, Badafini represents that the object of direct administration was to extend cultivation, benefit the peasants, and increase the revenue; the official version is, as we have seen, that the object was to remove the causes of the dissatisfaction which was ruining the morale of the \ Badauni, ii. 189. I follow generally Lowe's translation, as amended n the errata-list. For the opening clause, Lowe gives “‘a new idea came into his head,” but there is no person in the text to whom “his’’ can refer, and I take the phrase to be impersonal, and contemptuous.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation