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

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256 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA If desired, a fixed cash-charge was levied on the bigha for each crop, which was called Raia Todar Mal’s dastir-ul ‘amal and dhara. This account points to two alternative methods of assessment, differential Sharing, and Measurement at cash rates. The con- temporary records which I have followed in the text give no hint of differential Sharing; and they show clearly that Todar Mal’s Measurement-rates were not fixed in cash, but were stated in grain, and commuted on annual prices. The discrepancy is therefore serious. In estimating the value of this account, it must be remem- bered that the text of the chronicle is very uncertain. Colonel W. N. Lees is quoted in Elliot’s History (vii. 210) as writing that “no two copies that I have met with—and I have compared five apparently very good MSS.—are exactly alike, while some present such dissimilarities as almost to warrant the supposition that they are distinct works.” So far as I know, no attempt to settle the text has yet been made: the first volume issued in Bibliotheca Indica promised a critical preface, but the promise has not yet been fulfilled, and no description is extant of the MSS. which were used by the editor. In the present case, however, it is apparent that this account did not form part of the original chronicle, but is a later insertion. It is given in two places in the printed text, the notes to which show that in two MSS. it is inserted (p. 155) under the sixth year of Akbar’s reign, while in a third (p. 195), it appears under the 34th year. It is scarcely possible to suppose that an integral portion of the original chronicle should have become displaced in this way; the facts point clearly to a later insertion, which was made in two copies at the first mention of Todar Mal, and in another at the record of his death. I am not prepared to express a definite opinion on the question whether the insertion was made by Khwafi Khan, or by someone else. The style of the chronicle is not uniform: this account resembles some portions of it, but not others; and it may well be that the portions which it resembles are other insertions by the same hand. The account, whoever wrote it, is thus separated from the facts by 150 years or more. It is also separated from them by distance, for the chronicle belongs to the literature of the Deccan, not of Hindustan. The word dhdrd, which is given as a synonym for dastiir-ul ‘amal points to the locality of origin: in Hindi it means primarily a stream, and the dictionaries of Forbes and

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