The agrarian system of Moslem India

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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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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter II. The 13th and 14th centuries

Collection:: Economics Books

48 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA but not of those who succeeded in meeting their engage- ments, or who submitted to the penalty of failure ; and the nature of their relations with Chiefs and peasants is left to be imagined. The fate of the River Country during this reign must be told in some detail. Here, as elsewhere, the precise dates are sometimes uncertain, but the sequence of events can be traced: the story extends over nearly a quarter of a century, and the main features are—ruinous enhancement of revenue, loss of market, restriction of cultivation, re- bellion, drastic punishment, attempts at restoration de- leated by the failure of the rains, and, finally, a spectacular policy of reconstruction, ending in an almost complete fiasco. At the outset of his reign, Muhammad decided (p. 473) to enhance the revenue of the River Country, which was. in the main, reserved for the treasury. The enhancement was ruinous! in amount, the peasants were impoverished, and those of them who had any resources became dis- affected. Not long afterwards, the King carried out his plan of transferring the capital to Deogir in the Deccan, and in the year 1329 Delhi was evacuated by practically the entire population. The economic effect of this measure on the peasants in the River Country can be readily under- stood from a study of Aliuddin’s regulations. Delhi was the one large market for the surplus produce of the country, and when that market was summarily abolished, there would be no object in raising produce which could not be sold; in 1 Barni, 473. The enhancement is described as yaki ba dah wa yaki ba bist. Mr. Ishwari Prasad rightly objects (Medieval India, 239%.) that Dowson’s rendering (Elliot, iii. 238) “fen or five per cent. more” does not explain the results which followed; while he observes, also rightly, that che alternative rendering, “ten or twenty times” is impossible if taken literally. The fact is that the phrase is rhetorical and not arithmetical; it is one of Ziya Barni’s favourite locutions, and he runs up and down the scale, ten-fold, 1oo-fold, 1000-fold, according to the humour of the moment, and not with any precise numerical significance. The idea of percentage is ruled out by such passages as that on P. 30, where an increase of “one to 100’’ brought tears to the spectators’ eyes, or that on p. 568, where it is said that the effect of irrigation will be to increase the cattle ‘one to 1000.” Other passages are 84, 91, 109, 138, 294, 368, 394, 532; the list is not exhaustive, but it suffices to place the meaning of the phrase beyond doubt, as ‘‘huge,” “marvellous,” ‘“enormous,” or any rhetorical expression suited to the context

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