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.

INTRODUCTION Accordingly, in two earlier books, India at the death of Akbar, and From Akbar to Aurangzeb, 1 included condensed accounts of the relations which at that period subsisted between the administration and the peasants. These accounts were based mainly on the original authorities, but, in interpreting the obscure and crabbed texts, I followed the work of previous students, who I assumed had mastered the technical terminology of the subject; and, usually accepting their renderings, I offered a description of the main lines of the agrarian administration, reserving for subsequent study some difficulties which appeared to be matters of detail. On returning to the subject, I found that these apparent details increased in importance when scrutinised more closely; and I was driven gradually to the conclusion that the guides I had accepted, Blochmann, Jarrett, Dawson, and other writers of the last century, busied, as they were, in exploring an entirely unknown field, had not fully mastered the terminology employed in the literature of the period, but had borrowed from modern practice in India, or some- times from medieval practice in Europe, terms of art, or picturesque phrases, which did not always give the precise meaning of the originals, and occasionally involved serious misrepresentation. It was necessary, therefore, to study the terminology afresh; and for this purpose I worked through the printed literature of the period, together with such relevant manuscripts as I found in this country, extracting every passage in’ which an apparently technical term occurred, and then bringing the passages together, and inferring from them the meaning, or meanings, borne by each term at different periods, or in different parts of India. The results obtained in the course of this study form the basis of the present essay, and sufficient illustrations of my methods will be found in the notes and appendices; but at the outset it may be well to insist on the fact that the terminology employed in the literature is fluid, so that both time and place may condition the interpretation of a particular passage. The Persian language, as -it was used in Moslem India, possessed a wealth of synonyms; and most of the authorities observed what may be described as

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation