6o THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
deputed to report how far the floods caused by each canal 
had extended, and that the King was exceedingly ‘pleased 
when he heard of widespread inundation. The canals were 
thus of a somewhat clementary type, and should not be 
thought of in terms of those which now exist in the Punjab, 
but their value to the country cannot be questioned: the 
same chronicler records (p. 128) that in the country round 
Hissar, where formerly only kharif crops were grown, both 
kharif and rabi crops could be matured with the aid of the 
canal. The extent of their value can be inferred from the 
fact that they brought in an annual income of two lakhs of 
tankas; this is not a large sum when compared with the 
Valuation of the kingdom (5% krors), but obviously it was 
important for the limited areas where water was made 
available. 
I'he assessment of this irrigation-revenue furnishes some 
points of interest. To begin with, the King referred to an 
assembly of jurists the question whether he could lawfully 
claim any income in return for his outlay, and was informed 
that it was lawful to take “Water-right” (hagq-i shirb), a 
term of Islamic law, denoting a right, separate from that 
of the holder of land, arising from the provision of water. 
The jurists defined this right as “one-tenth,” presumably 
of the produce, and the King proceeded to assessment ac- 
cordingly. The chronicler’s account of the procedure 
(Afif, 130) is highly technical, and I am not absolutely certain 
of its meaning, but a distinction was apparently drawn 
between existing villages, and the new “colonies” (in the 
modern Indian sense of the word) which were founded in 
country previously uncultivated. From the former, water- 
right was collected, and its amount, together with the 
entire revenue derived from the “colonies,” was excluded 
from the public accounts .and paid into a special treasury, 
the receipts of which were earmarked for the King’s charitable 
expenditure. 
1 The Hedaya, translated by C. Hamilton, iv. 147. Thomas, in his 
Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, p. 271n, took the assessment as 
ten per cent. on the total outlay, but it seems to me doubtful whether an 
idea so closely allied to usury would have found favour with Moslem 
jurists of the period. I have found no authority showing how water-right 
was to be calculated in ordinarv cases.