THE OUTLYING REGIONS 185 
practised in the Deccan. The old-established unit of 
assessment was the plough; ‘each headman or peasant who, 
with one plough and team, cultivated what area he could, 
and sowed what crop he chose, paid a small sum for each 
plough”; the amount demanded for a plough differed ac- 
cording to the pargana, and no enquiry was made as to the 
yield. It may be questioned whether this statement is 
precisely applicable to the entire region, because uniformity 
over so large an area is somewhat improbable, while it is at 
variance with the traditional accounts of Malik Ambar’s 
reforms in Ahmadnagar; but we may reasonably infer that 
plough-rents, the existence of which can be traced into the 
British period, were at this time the prevailing system in a 
large part of the Deccan! Murshid Quli Khan did not 
abolish plough-rents altogether, but he introduced Sharing 
and Measurement as alternatives, so that he had three 
methods in all, applied doubtless in accordance with local 
conditions—the backward tracts assessed on the plough, 
the more developed villages by one of the new alternatives, 
but with a definite preference for Measurement. 
The system of Sharing now introduced was that which I 
have described in Chapter I as ““ differential,” that is to say, 
the share claimed was not uniform for all crops, but differed 
with circumstances. For crops depending on rain, the 
State took one-half the produce; for crops irrigated from 
wells, the claim was one-third for grain, while high-grade 
crops, such as sugarcane or poppy, were charged at varying 
rates from one-fourth downwards to one-ninth according 
to variations in the cost of production; and lastly, for 
crops irrigated from canals the rates varied somewhat from 
those for wells, but are not stated in figures. 
[n Measurement, on the other hand, all crops were 
charged at cash-rates, on the basis of one-fourth of the 
produce valued at local prices. In the conditions prevailing 
in this region, where rains-crops cover most of the area, a 
marked inducement was thus offered to accept Measurement 
{1 have not traced independent evidence to show that plough-rents 
orevailed in Khindesh or Berir, but, if they did, the fact would not be 
inconsistent with the statement that assessment by masaq was the rule in 
these provinces under Akbar; the headmen, or farmers, might agree to pay 
a lump sum for the village, and distribute it over the peasants on the 
basis of ploughs, instead of cultivated area, or gathered produce.