256 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
If desired, a fixed cash-charge was levied on the bigha for 
each crop, which was called Raia Todar Mal’s dastir-ul ‘amal 
and dhara. 
This account points to two alternative methods of assessment, 
differential Sharing, and Measurement at cash rates. The con- 
temporary records which I have followed in the text give no 
hint of differential Sharing; and they show clearly that Todar 
Mal’s Measurement-rates were not fixed in cash, but were stated 
in grain, and commuted on annual prices. The discrepancy 
is therefore serious. 
In estimating the value of this account, it must be remem- 
bered that the text of the chronicle is very uncertain. Colonel 
W. N. Lees is quoted in Elliot’s History (vii. 210) as writing that 
“no two copies that I have met with—and I have compared 
five apparently very good MSS.—are exactly alike, while some 
present such dissimilarities as almost to warrant the supposition 
that they are distinct works.” So far as I know, no attempt to 
settle the text has yet been made: the first volume issued in 
Bibliotheca Indica promised a critical preface, but the promise 
has not yet been fulfilled, and no description is extant of the 
MSS. which were used by the editor. In the present case, 
however, it is apparent that this account did not form part of 
the original chronicle, but is a later insertion. It is given in two 
places in the printed text, the notes to which show that in two 
MSS. it is inserted (p. 155) under the sixth year of Akbar’s reign, 
while in a third (p. 195), it appears under the 34th year. It is 
scarcely possible to suppose that an integral portion of the original 
chronicle should have become displaced in this way; the facts 
point clearly to a later insertion, which was made in two copies 
at the first mention of Todar Mal, and in another at the record 
of his death. I am not prepared to express a definite opinion 
on the question whether the insertion was made by Khwafi 
Khan, or by someone else. The style of the chronicle is not 
uniform: this account resembles some portions of it, but not 
others; and it may well be that the portions which it resembles 
are other insertions by the same hand. 
The account, whoever wrote it, is thus separated from the 
facts by 150 years or more. It is also separated from them by 
distance, for the chronicle belongs to the literature of the Deccan, 
not of Hindustan. The word dhdrd, which is given as a synonym 
for dastiir-ul ‘amal points to the locality of origin: in Hindi it 
means primarily a stream, and the dictionaries of Forbes and