APPENDIX E 
253 
language; mal is the widest of the revenue terms, and, while 
it often means Demand in the strict sense, there is no difficulty 
in reading it as the average calculated from the actual figures 
of Demand. I have found no parallel for kali dahsala, but 
hal is a very wide word, and we can render “a ten-year state” 
without straining it. The figures for Demand would include 
the effect of variations of cultivation and prices, because they 
had been assessed on the actual cultivation in each season, at 
rates which varied with prices; and the passage can thus be read 
as an elegant, but inadequate, summary of what the Ain records, 
while it cannot be read as complementary, supplying something 
which the Ain omits. 
There is nothing then in the Akbarnima to clear up the 
apparent illogicalities in the Ain. The last of them would 
disappear if we assume that, following the words, “the table 
shows,” the draft contained a statement of the third Valuation, 
and then an explanation of the Demand schedules; that the 
former was struck out as unnecessary, because the Account 
of the XII Provinces was to contain the Valuation brought up- 
to date; and that the latter disappeared accidentally in the 
process of revision, so that the Demand schedules were made 
to follow directly on the account of the Valuation. This is 
possible, for there are other signs of hasty editing, but there is 
no evidence on the point. 
As to the main illogicality, two explanations can be suggested. 
In the first place it is possible that this portion of the chapter 
may have been substantially altered, a first and full draft having 
been greatly curtailed by the editor. As has been related in 
Chapter IV, various passages in the Akbarnima show that, 
about this time, there was friction in the Ministry between 
Shah Mansiir, who was there all the time, and Todar Mal, who 
returned from time to time in the intervals of military duty. 
It is quite conceivable that the draft may have contained a 
good deal about these old squabbles, which was struck out 
by the editor as unnecessary or inconvenient. Shih Mansiir 
was in fact an inconvenient topic,! for there were doubts whether 
his execution for treason was justified; Abul Fazl deals with 
him cautiously in the Akbarnima; and it is noteworthy that 
his name does not appear in paragraphs D and E, though he 
was solely responsible for carrying out the operations they 
! See V. Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, 194 fi.