8 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA
the crops were on the ground, and the rest was a mere
matter of arithmetic.
From the thirteenth to the nineteenth century we find
these two methods of assessment, Sharing and Measure-
ment, in competition, and sometimes existing side by side,
a fact which suggests that, in actual practice, neither of
them could claim any very definite superiority. Later in
the period we hear of another method, which I shall describe
as Contract: under it a peasant came to terms with the
assessing officer to pay a fixed sum of money annually for
his holding, whatever crops he might grow; and this method
must be regarded as the érigin of that which now prevails
over the greater part of the country as between landholder
and tenant.
B. ASSESSMENT THROUGH INTERMEDIARIES.
[ have chosen the term Intermediaries to denote all the
various classes authorised or permitted by the King to
collect his share, and to retain a portion or the whole.
Intermediaries may be classed as Chiefs, Representatives,
Assignees, Grantees, and Farmers.
Chiefs. —At the opening of the Moslem period, we find
that large areas subject to the foreign kings remained in
the hands of Hindu Chiefs,! who paid tribute for them in
cash, and that the King’s officers did not normally deal
with the peasants in these areas, or meddle in their internal
administration. In the earliest records the more important
Chiefs are spoken of as Riana, Rai, or Rao, titles which
still survive; their use at this period indicates that the
Chiefs had been in theory; if not in practice, sovereigns in
their own right, and that they had submitted to the new
rulers, retaining most of their previous jurisdiction. As
time went on, the Chiefs came to be designated collectively
as zamindars, and there is historical continuity between
them and some of the zamindars of to-day, though there
have been important alterations in the conditions of their
tenure. In the past the Chiefs’ payments were determined
! I use the term Chief as the one least likely to mislead. The word
zamindar has changed its significance in the course of history, and it now
means different things in different parts of India, so it is better to avoid
it in a general discussion.
