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.

258 THE AGKARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA I think then that the statement that Murshid Quli was a servile copyist of Todar Mal may fairly be described as legendary. Another legend, found in some early English writers, is that Todar Mal was himself a copyist, and that the Ain-i Akbari derives directly from Timir’s Institutes. The original of this work is not known to be in existence, but a Persian version, said to have been made in the reign of Shahjahin, was published in 1783, along with an English translation by Major Davy, under the editorship of Joseph White. Doubts have been thrown on the authenticity of this work. If it is a later forgery, the idea that Todar Mal copied from it is ruled out; but, assuming it to be genuine, a comparison of it with the Ain negatives decisively the -view of direct derivation. Naturally some of Timir's institutions, particularly in the military departments, survived into Akbar’s time, and consequently some resemblances in detail exist between the two works; but (1) the assessment-system, and (2) the practice in regard to Assignments, show material differences. (1) Timiir's assessment-system, as described on pp. 360 ff. of White's edition is of the distinctive Islamic type, based on differences in the water-supply, while the Ain nowhere recognises such differences. (2) Timir’s practice regarding Assignments (pp. 236 ff.) was that allocation was made by lot, that an Assignment was held for three years, that it was then inspected, and that, if the assignee was found to have oppressed the peasants, he received no salary for the next three years. In Mogul India, allocation was not by lot, but by favour of the Diwan, the term of holding was indeterminate, and there is no record of any process of in- spection, or of a prescribed penalty for oppression. There is nothing in the Ain to suggest that Akbar’s Revenue Ministry accepted the Institutes as authoritative, or indeed had even heard of them. The work is not mentioned in the historical essay on taxation (i. 289), where we should expect to meet it, while the fact (if it be a fact) that a translation had to be made in the reign of Shahjahan suggests that nothing of the kind existed previously. There are no grounds, therefore, for the view that Todar Mal used the Institutes as his guide; and all that can be said is, that, if he knew of their existence, he departed widely from their provisions in his practice.

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