ANTECEDENTS 
I7 
early attempt was made to introduce such differential 
scales in the Moslem kingdom of Delhi is a question which 
I cannot answer, because I have found no record of the 
scales of Demand before the year 1300; but Alauddin 
Khalji about that year followed what I take to be the 
Hindu practice in demanding a uniform share of one-half 
in all cases; in later times Sher Shah and Akbar also followed 
the Hindu practice; and the earliest differential scale of 
which I have found clear evidence in Moslem India! was 
that which was introduced in the Deccan by Murshid 
Quli Khan in the middle of the seventeenth century. 
It is true that a differential scale is recommended in a 
Sanskrit work, the Sukraniti,® the text of which has been 
used as an argument to establish the view that the practice 
was part of the Sacred Law. This work is, however, com- 
paratively modern; the references to artillery which it 
contains show that, in its present form, it belongs to the 
Moslem period; and so far as I can find, there is nothing 
in it inconsistent with the view that it was compiled in the 
seventeenth century, when a differential scale had in fact 
been introduced in India. The passage is, I think, best 
read as an attempt to combine the two methods. The 
traditional uniform share of one-sixth is duly preserved, 
but its application is limited to barren and rocky soils; 
while for more productive land, higher shares, varying from 
a half to a quarter, according to the source of water, are 
recommended as the basis of assessment. That is probably 
the work of a writer who knew the Sacred Law, but at the 
same time was familiar with a modern practice. 
In any case, the differences which have been described 
are matters of detail, and it may fairly be said that the 
agrarian system which we find in operation in the fourteenth 
century was, in its essential features, in harmony with the 
law of Islam, and also with the Sacred Law of Hinduism, 
so that the conquerors had little more to do than give 
1 Mr. Ishwari Prasad states (Medieval India, p. 46) that a differential 
scale was introduced by the Arabs in Sind during the eighth century. 
[I have not traced the details of this arrangement in the chronicles, and 
I do not know how long it lasted, but I think it must be regarded as an 
episode. 
* Translated by S. K. Sarkar, Allahabad, 1914, p. 148.