APPENDIX H 
279 
system was in force. In later times zabti denoted a revenue- 
rate, or rent-rate, levied on the area sown. and varying with 
the crop. 
ZaMINDAR. Lit. “land-holder.” The word does not necessarily 
imply any particular claim or title, and in 18c. was used 
in Bengal to denote any sort of holder (vide Ch. VII, sec. 2). 
In the literature of North India, from 14c. onwards, it 
meant what I have called a Chief, that is, a landholder with 
title or claim antecedent to Moslem rule, commonly a Réja, 
Rio, or some other Hindu King, or ex-King, who had become 
tributary to the Moslem State. It is occasionally applied 
also to rulers who had not become tributary.