THE SAYYID AND AFGHAN DYNASTIES 67 
In these circumstances, it is, at the least, improbable 
that any general agrarian measures were instituted, still 
less, enforced. The conditions would make for diversity of 
practice in assessment and collection, and the probabilities 
are that each individual dealt with the peasants very much 
as he chose. We may guess that Group-assessment gained 
ground at the expense of Sharing or Measurement, because 
1t was more suitable to the conditions which prevailed, but 
we have no precise knowledge on the subject. A few 
casual references! show that Assignments were given, and 
that is practically the only definite fact which I have found. 
In the year 1451 the Sayyid dynasty gave place to the 
Afghan family of Lodi, and Delhi began to recover a part 
of its former position. The southern kingdoms, indeed, 
remained independent, but the Afghan power extended 
eastwards; and, after the final reduction of Jaunpur in 
1493, it can fairly be described as holding the North of 
India. I have found no contemporary authority for the 
Lodi dynasty, and the later records? are in many respects 
unsatisfactory; but they indicate that during this period 
the Assignment was the most important agrarian institu- 
tion, and that it had now taken the form which is familiar 
in the Mogul period, that is to say, the assignee was bound, 
not merely to loyalty and personal service, but to the main- 
tenance, out of the assigned Income, of a body of troops 
available for the King’s needs. Assignments would thus 
be fewer in number, but individually more extensive, than 
in the reign of Firiz. Bahlil, the founder of the dynasty, 
appears to have based his throne definitely on this in- 
stitution; it was the offer of Assignments® which attracted 
to India the Afghan leaders who constituted his effective 
strength: holders of large Assignments were expected to 
t E.g., we are told (Elliot, v. 71, 75) that the Lodi family held various 
Assignments under the Sayyid dynasty. 
3 The Tarikh-s Daudi dates from the reign of Jahangir, the Tarikh-i 
Salatin from late in the reign of Akbar, and the Makhzan-i Afghani was 
completed in 1612. For the two former, I have to depend on the trans: 
lations in Elliot, iv, v; for the last, I have used also Borns translation, 
“History of the Afghans,” and the RAS MS. 60 (Morley), which was used 
by Dorn. 
3 Elliot, iv. 308-10. 
idem. iv. 410, Vv. 75 
The existence of Reserved land is indicated in