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 III. The Sayyid and Afghan dynasties

Collection:: Economics Books

THE SAYYID AND AFGHAN DYNASTIES 67 In these circumstances, it is, at the least, improbable that any general agrarian measures were instituted, still less, enforced. The conditions would make for diversity of practice in assessment and collection, and the probabilities are that each individual dealt with the peasants very much as he chose. We may guess that Group-assessment gained ground at the expense of Sharing or Measurement, because 1t was more suitable to the conditions which prevailed, but we have no precise knowledge on the subject. A few casual references! show that Assignments were given, and that is practically the only definite fact which I have found. In the year 1451 the Sayyid dynasty gave place to the Afghan family of Lodi, and Delhi began to recover a part of its former position. The southern kingdoms, indeed, remained independent, but the Afghan power extended eastwards; and, after the final reduction of Jaunpur in 1493, it can fairly be described as holding the North of India. I have found no contemporary authority for the Lodi dynasty, and the later records? are in many respects unsatisfactory; but they indicate that during this period the Assignment was the most important agrarian institu- tion, and that it had now taken the form which is familiar in the Mogul period, that is to say, the assignee was bound, not merely to loyalty and personal service, but to the main- tenance, out of the assigned Income, of a body of troops available for the King’s needs. Assignments would thus be fewer in number, but individually more extensive, than in the reign of Firiz. Bahlil, the founder of the dynasty, appears to have based his throne definitely on this in- stitution; it was the offer of Assignments® which attracted to India the Afghan leaders who constituted his effective strength: holders of large Assignments were expected to t E.g., we are told (Elliot, v. 71, 75) that the Lodi family held various Assignments under the Sayyid dynasty. 3 The Tarikh-s Daudi dates from the reign of Jahangir, the Tarikh-i Salatin from late in the reign of Akbar, and the Makhzan-i Afghani was completed in 1612. For the two former, I have to depend on the trans: lations in Elliot, iv, v; for the last, I have used also Borns translation, “History of the Afghans,” and the RAS MS. 60 (Morley), which was used by Dorn. 3 Elliot, iv. 308-10. idem. iv. 410, Vv. 75 The existence of Reserved land is indicated in

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