168 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
Brotherhood but containing also other cultivators outside 
the circle. In the next section I pass to a consideration of 
the methods by which the King’s share of the produce 
was paid. 
3. THE PEASANT’S PAYMENTS 
At this period there is practically no trace of direct 
relations between salaried officials and individual peasants. 
The person entitled to collect the King’s share of the 
produce, whether he held the position of Farmer, Assignee, 
or Chief, ordinarily came to terms with the Headmen of the 
village for payment of a fixed sum in cash, determined with 
reference to the productive capacity of the village, but not 
assessed in detail on individual fields or holdings. Now, 
as under Aurangzeb, it was the Headmen’s business to 
realise from the individual peasants the amount which had 
to be paid. The King’s share also was unchanged in 
amount, normally half the produce, and ranging downwards 
in particular cases to one-third; the recipient aimed at 
getting a sum of money representing approximately this 
share, or if possible a little more, while the Headmen aimed at 
securing a lower assessment by concealing in various ways a 
portion of the actual production of the village. The amount 
of the payment was still commonly fixed for the year, but 
there was in some places a tendency to repeat the assess- 
ment until the amount became “customary” in the eyes of 
both parties. 
The pitch of the revenue-Demand necessarily set the 
standard of the amounts to be paid by individual peasants, 
since it was obviously better for the Brotherhood that land 
should lie uncultivated than that its cultivation should 
involve the Headman in liability for more than he could 
realise from it. As regards the peasants outside the Brother- 
hood, the usual practice was to charge them with the revenue, 
plus some small addition representing the Brotherhood’s 
profit; in the Records this additional charge is sometimes, 
but not always, included in the rates entered as payable, 
and consequently these sometimes exceed the standard of 
1 Delhi Records, p. 14.